Mumbai, Nov 18 (IANS) Pranavi Urs became the first woman player to hold a share of the lead at any point on the IGPL Tour. With a round of 6-under 62, she shares the lead with Karandeep Kochhar after the first day of the IGPL Invitational Mumbai.

Pranavi, playing her first IGPL event, has in the past won at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club but on the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour. She produced a sizzling round of 6-under 62 at the Par-68 BPGC course.

Pranavi, who had eight birdies against two bogeys, is tied at the top with her boyfriend, Kochhar, who a few minutes earlier finished eagle-par-eagle for his 62.

Kochhar had two eagles, three birdies and just one bogey on the fourth. Kochhar, playing only his second IGPL event, and Pranavi, making her IGPL debut, have been seeing each other for a little over two years. They will now get to play the second round together.

Pranavi plays on the Ladies European Tour, while Kochhar is assured of an Asian Tour card next season.

It was a great day for the women golfers, as four of them figured in the top 10. Pranavi was the leader, while Vani Kapoor was T-6 alongside Durga Nittur and Ridhima Dilawari was T-9. Trailing the co-leaders is twice winner, Aman Raj, who is also the IGPL Order of Merit leader, with a 4-under 64 to be third.

Kartik Singh, who has been having a great season, despite not winning, is tied fourth with 3-under 65 which started with a birdie on the first and a bogey on the third followed by six pars. On the back nine, he had four birdies against one bogey. “It was a good day, but a lot of putts did not fall,” said the teen golfer.

Pranavi was happy with the day’s work. She said, “Overall, my game was good, the hitting was good, and my putting was good.
So it just makes my life a lot easier, hitting the fairways and the green, because that’s the key on this golf course. It’s not that long for me, but to keep it in the fairway is something that I had to do today,” said Pranavi.

Pranavi had three birdies in a row twice – first from fourth to the sixth but had back-to-back bogeys after that. Then again she birdied from the 10th to the 12th as she had five bridies on the back nine.

She added, “I think I hit the ball well, and I gave myself a lot of opportunities, and which is good, and that’s what you need to. There were some real good runs like twice I had three birdies in a row,”

On whether Kochhar and she discuss golf a lot, she said, “We discuss to a limit, like, we don’t overdo it to each other. He doesn’t tell me what to do, and I don’t tell him really what to do.

“We make our own decisions, but if, you know, I’m confused or if he’s confused, then we obviously have a pros and cons kind of conversation and we kind of figure it out.”

On the upcoming second round, she laughed and added, “We often discuss our game with each other but tomorrow we will try to beat each other.”

Kochhar, who is coming in from his maiden International win in Egypt, said, “I think I hung in there pretty much all day. I didn’t have my ‘A’ game at the start, I would say but started with a good birdie on the first. But then I dropped a shot on the fourth with a mistake. I got unlucky with my drive in the middle of the fifth when it was a mud ball and couldn’t do much for that. I was able to make like a 30-yard up-and-down which was really good. Then I had a birdie on the eighth.

“And then just kind of kind of went about my business, being one birdie in the middle and I think got a little hot in the end, finishing eagle-par-eagle in the last three holes.”

On his finish with two eagles in the last three holes, he said, “Got lucky on 16, I mean, I had a good putt obviously, but it was like 40-50 feet away and it kind of just went in the middle of a hole. I hit really two great shots on the last one, on the 18th, which has a narrow fairway but is a short hole for par five, but you really have to be in the fairway. I was able to hit my second to 4-5 feet for the putt (eagle).”

Aman Raj (64) finished birdie-birdie at the finish to be third. He said, “It was a nice finish with birdie-birdie and 4-under was a decent score. There were a lot of nice pars I saved, so overall a good day. In the period that I had two wins (Jaipur and Kolkata), I was tired because I had played quite a few weeks in a row, so Jamshedpur was not so great, but this week again I am feeling nice and rested and it showed today.”

Overall, Kartik was tied fourth with Shaurya Binu (65) while Pukhraj Singh Gill, Vani Kapoor and Durga Nittur were tied sixth with 2-under 66 each.

Amateur Ranveer Mitroo (67) was tied ninth with Ridhima Dilawari, Sachin Baisoya, Saarthak Chhibber, Manav Shah, Shat Mishra and the legendary SSP Chawrasia. They all shot 1-under 67 each.

–IANS

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