Greater Noida: Defending Champion Anirban Lahiri hopes to put up a fierce competition and hopes to defend his Bilt Open crown which gets underway at the Jaypee Greens Golf Resort from tomorrow. Bilt Open which returned back to NCR would see top Indian lining up for the 10 mn tournament including Jyoti Randhawa, Himmat Rai, Rashid Khan and the leader of PGTI order of merit Mukesh Kumar.
“The course in is good shape and I am looking for a good week ahead. I have done really good on this course in earlier occasions and hope to carry on that momentum. There are lot birdie scoring opportunities and like it that way,” said the two times Bilt Open winner.
Lahiri who won the Bilt Open consecutively for 2009 and 2010 considers this course as his second home course and feels it to be great hunting ground for long hitters. “I played 18 rounds today and find the course in great shape. But somehow the course appears to be little softer and hence is expected to play longer,” added Lahiri, the winner of 2011 Panasonic Open.
Lahiri however feels that even though one can drive freely in this course, one would actually need to strategize the game before playing certain holes. “It’s a kind of course that you will find the world over but there is certain way to play at that course and if you fall two-three shots back you can go all guns blazing, fire at every flag and hit drivers at every hole but that’s something you can’t do on 50 per cent of other courses. Jaypee is probably of a length advantage rather than a strategy advantage. Although there are some places where you have to play smart and you can’t just be dumb and hit as far as you like and suddenly find yourself 40 yards away from the front pin and you can’t spin it, you can’t stop it. So you have to be smart to hit three shots and get a par score. You can’t be all brawn and no brain but you have to hit it far enough to take advantage of certain holes,” said the defending champion. “There are lot of long hitters but then the deciding factor always remains the showing on the greens,” added Lahiri
Himmat Singh and Rashid Khan who are placed second and third respectively on the PGTI order of merit are looking to put up a tough fight to win the PGTI’s flagship event.
“I am looking to put forward a good show in the weekend. I have made cuts in all the tournaments I played this year except for the Indian Open. So I am quite confident and definitely would look to win highest paid tournament on the domestic circuit,” said Rashid.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News