Chandigarh: Karan Taunk shot one-under 70 to take the lead in the opening round of stroke play of CNEB All India Amateur Golf Championship at Chandigarh Golf Club, Chandigarh on Tuesday. The Jamshedpur golfer hit a bogey free round for the first time in his amateur career.
Meanwhile the winner of Goodricke East India, Honey Baisoya played a level par round for the second position in a tie along with Sri Lankan N Thangaraja. Local boy Angad Cheema fired an amazing eagle on the 13th to come back with one-over 72 for the third place in a tie along with Delhi’s Gagan Verma and Bangladeshi Mohd. Dulal Hossain.
S. Chikkarangappa, defending champion as well as the No.1 Amateur of the country, returned with a score card of 3-over 74 to take the 11th spot in a tie along with Sri Lankan Vijita Bandara.
Both the Englishmen Curtis Griffiths and Jack Colegate matched their scores of 4-under 75 for the 13th and 14th position respectively.
Karan Taunk, whose best finish was 7th in LIC Western India in Bombay and RCGC Cup, Kolkata this season, ran off a string of impressive shots throughout the round and the best was a birdie on 13th which made him take the lead of the day. Taunk didn’t go into much trouble even after missing the green on 5th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 17th for a bogey free round. Taunk who takes the coaching from Kel Llewllyn, said, “I am pretty happy with my round and want to give the credit to my coach Kel Lewlyn who also has been the coach of Jyoti Randhawa and Alan Singh who helps me in each aspect of the game.”
Delhi’s Baisoya, who finished fourth in All India Junior Championship early this month, sank four birdies on 6th, 7th, 16th and 17th while bogeyed the 9th, 15th and double bogeyed the 10th. The trickiest hole for him was the 15th where he hit the tee shot on the left rough next to a tube well and played a provisional ball in confusion after taking a penalty shot. By the time he reached the original ball, he found that the ball was not out of the boundary wall; he then played a rescue on fairway for the 60 yards chip and used the lobe wedge from there to secure a double bogey.
The day was not in favour of Bangalore’s duo Udayan Mane and Khalin Joshi as both of them hit two-over 73 for the eight and ninth position respectively. Mane, the winner of Mahrashtra Open was struggling to come back in the rhythm of playing the 18-holes after getting hospitalized last month while Joshi, who was three-under after front nine, lost his control on the ball after making a double bogey on 10th, 13th and bogeys on 15th and 18th.
In an international team championship played concurrently, the leading team was India “A” in which Honey Baisoya (71) and Angad Cheema (73) played for the team total of 143 while India “B” became second which represented by S. Chikkarangappa and Khalin Joshi for the total of 144. Sri Lankan team (N Thangaraja & Vijita Bandara) came third with 145 while England (Cutis Griffiths & Jack Colegate) was fourth with 150. Bangladeshi team was one point behind with 151 for the fifth place, India “C” (Gagan Verma & Siddharth Semwal) was at 155 at 6th while Bhutan (Capt. Gyamba Dukpa & Thinley Namgay) sfinished 7th with 186.
