Pappan steals early lead

Little-known Pappan of Delhi Golf Club stole the show over his better-known contemporaries, with a six-under 66, to take an early lead after the opening round in the Rs 750,000 The Hindu Open, being played at the par-72, 6,654-yard Cosmo-TNGF golf course in Madras on Wednesday.

The Hindu Open is the inaugural event of the 2001-02 season of the Hero Honda Golf Tour.

Last year’s top-ranked golfer Mukesh Kumar was tied second, two-strokes behind the leader at 68, along with yesteryear golf star Calcutta’s Bunty Randhawa.

Randhawa’s city-mate Yusuf Ali was accompanied by Chandigarh’s Ranjit Singh. The twosome tied at fourth position at three-under 69 while Patna’s Mohd Islam was placed sixth at 70.

Mukesh's rival and defending champion, Lucknow’s Vijay Kumar, veteran golfers Delhi’s Rohtas Singh and Kanpur’s Shiv Prakash, last season’s ‘Rookie of the Year’ Mysore’s Rahul Ganapathy and another Lucknowite, Rookie Sheeraz Kalra, were among 11 golfer tied 14th at level-par 72. Rahil Gangjee the other Rookie golfer did not do badly either carding a 74.

Pappan essayed a dream start on Wednesday, with birdies on the 10th and 12th, sandwiching a superb eagle on the 11th. The effort on the par-4 11th, was set up by a driver, 9-iron combination. This placed him at four-under after three holes. Dropping his first shot of the day on the 13th, Pappan made up with birdies on the 14th and 15th. Thereafter two more birdies on the 2nd and 6th following his second bogey of the day on the 17th highlighted his day’s card.

"I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the new season. The course is in superb condition and the greens are simply great," said the delighted golfer. As for Thursday, Pappan plans to take it one hole at a time.

Anybody who thought Mukesh Kumar would be a tad relaxed after winning his second straight ‘Mahindra Champion Golfer of the Year’ award, had another thought coming up. Teeing off from the first tee, Mukesh got into the thick of things straight away, sinking a superb 30 feet putt for birdie on his opening hole. Thereafter, there was no stopping him as the 32-year old birdied the 6th, 9th, 16th and 17th before an unfortunate bogey on his final hole marred to an extent what was otherwise been an error free card.

"I was completely focussed today. There was not pressure on me and every aspect of my game just fell into place," said last season’s highest prize money earner (Rs 13,00,685) and one of only three golfers to cross the one-million rupee earnings mark in the 2000-01 season.

"We got a small fright last season after the Tour sponsors pulled out but this year, with Hero Honda taking the Tour under their wings, things look very promising. This is a great opportunity for us golfers which I for one definitely don’t plan to waste," concluded Mukesh in business like fashion.

A quick look at the list of winners of the Hindu Open will reveal the name of Bunty Randhawa somewhere in the late eighties.

"I don’t remember whether it was ’86 or ’87 but I know for certain that I finished the event around 13-strokes ahead of the second ranked golfer," said Randhawa, who is today better-known as Jyoti Randhawa’s cousin and mentor. A 10th tee starter, Bunty began with a bogey but ended his round in a flourish with a string of five birdies.

"Playing with Pappan inspired me," said the flashy golfer who was once, one of the biggest stars in Indian golf.

Yudhvir leads amateur field: CV Yudhvir led the amateur field at one-over 73, one-stroke ahead of second placed Gurunath Meiyappan.

SCORES (after 18 holes): 66 _ Pappan; 68 _ Mukesh Kumar, Bunty Randhawa; 69 _ Yusuf Ali, Ranjit Singh; 70 _ Mohd. Islam; 71 _ Ajay Gupta, Basad Ali, Chini Ali, Gast Ram, Mohd. Maqbool, Randhir Ghotra, Vinod Kumar (D); 72 _ Vijay Kumar, Rahul Ganapathy, Rohtas Singh, Shiv Prakash, Sheeraz Kalra, A Divyanathan, Bhoop Singh, DS Raghuvanshi, Gurki Shergill, Monish Bindra, Rezwan Ali Amateurs: 73_CV Yudhvir; 74 _ Gurunath Meiyappan; 76 _ Sandeep Syal.