Kaushal bags lead on day 1
Noida’s Dipankar Kaushal returned an eight- under- par 62 to storm into the first round lead at the PGTI Feeder Tour event at the Palms Golf Club & Resort in Lucknow on Monday.
The 32- year- old Kaushal sank an amazing nine birdies against a lone bogey on a windy day to establish a twoshot lead in the final event of the Feeder Tour season.
Lucknow’s Rajesh Kumar Rawat ( 64) and Amardeep Rawat ( 65) were second and third respectively.
Kaushal, currently 15th on the Feeder Tour Order of Merit thanks to two top- 10s in the season, produced one of the best rounds of his career to set the bar for the rest of the field.
Kaushal, in pursuit of his maiden title, began with a bogey where he found the bushes. However, he soon made up for that with a couple of good wedge shots that set up birdies.
What followed was a golden stretch for Kaushal as he made five straight birdies to work his way to the top of the pack. The strongly- built Kaushal’s clean ball- striking ensured all his birdie putts on this stretch were within a range of seven feet.
He then added two more birdies, a 20- foot conversion followed by a recovery from the fairway bunker to end up with a scintillating 62.
Kaushal said, “I’m delighted with my opening round effort, even more so because it was a windy day and scoring wasn’t that easy. I scored on all four par- 5s and that was another heartening aspect of my game today.
“I had earlier shot a sevenunder63 at the Feeder Tour event in Karnal last month. So I would like to believe that my game is on the upswing but I just need more consistency.
“The Feeder Tour has given me the opportunity to work on my swing and also try out different things before getting back onto the main tour.”
Local lad Rajesh Rawat began with a bogey but then rallied with seven birdies to close the round two shots behind the leader.
Amardeep Rawat, who was runner- up at last week’s event, mixed seven birdies with two bogeys to be placed third.
Feeder Tour Order of Merit leader Pawan Verma of Delhi carded a four- under- 66 to be joint fourth along with Gurugram’s Aditya Raj Kumar Chauhan. Both enjoyed a run of four consecutive birdies on the front nine.