Jamshedpur, Nov 5 (IANS) Pukhraj Singh Gill, who has come close to a win on more than one occasions put himself in the pole position with an outstanding round of 9-under 63 on the Par-72 Beldih Golf Course in the IGPL Invitational Jamshedpur hosted by Arjun Munda.

Pukhraj opened a massive lead of four shots over Harendra Gupta, an experienced star who like him is looking for his maiden win in the IGPL. Harendra, who has won on the domestic Tour in the past, before coming over to IGPL, shot 5-under 67 and was tied second with Sudhir Sharma (67) and Sachin Baisoya (67).

Yashas Chandra, who recovered from an early bogey on his starting hole, the third, found five birdies after that to be 4-under and sole fifth.

Pukhraj’s nine-under was the fourth such score, though the previous three by Aman Raj – twice in Jaipur and once in Kolkata – came on par-70 courses.

The IGPL Order of Merit leader and winner of the last two events. Aman Raj shot 69 and tied sixth alongside former Asian Tour winners, Chinnaswamy Muniyappa and Chiragh Kumar who also shot 69 each. Ashbeer Saini, IL Aalaap and Trishul Chinappa were also in the big bunch of six players at Tied-sixth at 69.

Aman Raj, who won back-to-back titles in Jaipur and Kolkata, opened with a. birdie on the first and had a total of five birdies but he also gave away two bogeys one on each side of the course to be 3-under 69 and six behind the leader.

Pukhraj, who was the runner-up behind Gaganjeet Bhullar at the IGPL Jaypee Greens, besides finishing in Top-10 in Chandigarh, Pune and Kolkata, started from fifth hole in the shotgun start in the morning wave.

Pukhraj, a long hitter of the tee, who has also played on the Asian Tour and Asian Development Tour, started with a birdie on the fifth and added two more on the seventh and eighth.

Pukhraj seemed to be hunting birdies in pairs, as he added back-to-back gains on the 11th and the 12th and again on the 15th and the 16th. He picked a fourth birdie pair when he converted his chances on the second and the third and finished with a par on fourth, his final hole of the day.

The nine-under 63 was his best of the season so far and he left the course beaming with a flawless round.

Pukhraj said, “I had a bogey free day. Anytime that happens it is very satisfying. This course design suits my eye quite a bit. Hitting long off the tee also helps in some places.”

“The birdies seemed to be coming in pairs and I had some very good approach shots, and the putting was also good. Two more days to go and I will try to stay focused,” he added.

Baisoya, who was in a three-man bunch at second, had six birdies against one bogey, while Sudhir Sharma was bogey free and Harendra Gupta had six birdies against one bogey.

The two rising stars, Kartik Singh (70) and Veer Ganapathy (71) had modest first rounds. Kartik was ied-12th and Veer was Tied-17th as was Raghav Chugh (71). Both Kartik and Veer have come close to wins by finishing second earlier in the season.

–IANS

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