Grillo, Pablo shine on a rough day

An Argentine and a Spaniard provided the thrills as only they can. Emiliano Grillo, who hit the spotlight in the 2016 PGA season with a win in his maiden Tour appearance b e f o r e going on to win the rookie of the year a w a r d , shot a r e c o r d - equalling 7- under 65 as he took a 2- shot lead over the field at the Hero I n d i a n Open.

And then there was Pablo Larrazabal, who was woken up “38 minutes” before his tee time by a Tour official, dashed to the course in a courtesy card and proceeded to card a 5- under 67. He was tied with Matteo Manasserro and Paul Peterson, while Keith Horne and Adrien Saddier were yet to complete the round.

The day’s play could not be completed because it was taking a lot of time to finish the rounds. The tough course meant a lot of rulings and it delayed the proceedings. One could not blame the players because they needed to be careful and I believe a lot of them needed referees to come in to be sure.

Ajeetesh Sandhu was the best Indian and the only one in the top- 10 and that is an unusual thing when a tournament is played in India. But that also indicates the severity of the course. I heard he found all fairways and carded four- under, which is a great beginning. He is a t a l e n t e d young man and it will be nice to see him do well.

Meanwhile a lot of the other Indian favourites like Anirban Lahiri ( 72) and S. S. P. Chawrasia ( 74) had a mixed bag but I am sure they will bounce back on Friday.

Personally it was a very disappointing day, more so because I gave away so much on the front nine of the course, which in comparison is supposed to be the easier of the two halves. I was already fiveover by the time I turned after the front nine. I had just one birdie to show on the front nine and one more on back nine. At sixover it is going to a challenging task to get back in the second round. But one has to give it all.