Rejuvenated Ghei begins with a bang

The elixir-like combination of wife Miti’s birthday, playing in his in-law’s city for the first time and the ethereal surroundings of the Royal Spring’s Golf Club course worked wonders on Gaurav Ghei’s game as he took a share of the lead at the end of the opening day’s play in the Rs. 1,50,000 Sher-e-Kashmir Open, which began in Srinagar on Thursday.

In the first 'major' on the Hero Honda Indian Golf Tour, Ghei caught fire on his back nine to submit a four under 68 card and shared the lead with Sheeraz Kalra of Lucknow, and the surprise packet, Jaiveer Virk of Delhi.

The leading trio enjoyed a two-stroke advantage over a quality crowd at tied fourth place that included Jyoti Randhawa, Vijay Kumar, Mukesh Kumar, Rohtas Singh and Ranjit Singh.

Five players were tied for ninth place at one-under 71.

"There was enough motivation for me to do well today," said a satisfied Ghei, who is trying to make another comeback after missing almost seven months of action due to a niggling hernia problem.

"I am not tournament fit right now and am just trying to play as many tournaments as possible to regain competitive sharpness," said Ghei, who represented India in the Nations Cup last week in Kuala Lumpur.

Starting the day from the 10th tee, Ghei made the turn at one-over with bogeys on the 10th and 18th and a birdie on the 17th. But he was in fine form on the back nine. He birdied the par-3 second, the fourth, then sank a 25 footer birdie putt on the par-3 fifth and came in with successive birdies on the eighth and ninth.

The 27-year old Kalra, winner of this season’s Q-School began and finished his round with bogeys but packed six birdies in between.

"I was pretty solid between the tee and the green and my putting was pretty good," said the A V Thomas employee.

Kalra’s best birdies was the one on the par-5 first, where he hit a 75-yard third shot from the fairway bunker to less than two feet.

Virk has been working extremely hard on his game and it paid him rich dividends. The 22-year old from Delhi Golf Club used his short irons brilliantly and drained every putt in the range of 12-feet.

"The key to my score today was putting. You need to putt well to win here as most of the par-4s require a short iron or a wedge to the green," said Virk.

Ashfaq leads amateurs: Ashfaq Ahmed and Ghalib Shah both made eagle twos on the par-4 fourth but it was Ashfaq who took the lead with a two-over 74. Ghalib had an unfortunate triple bogey on his final hole to finish at 76.

The Sher-e-Kashmir Open forms the sixth leg of the Hero Honda Golf Tour’s 2001-02 calendar and is the first major of the season. The tournament is being managed by Tiger Sports Marketing.

SCORES (after 18 holes): 68_Gaurav Ghei, Jaiveer Virk, Sheeraz Kalra; 70_Jyoti Randhawa, Ranjit Singh, Rohtas Singh, Vijay Kumar, Mukesh Kumar; 71_Dinesh Raghuvanshi, Shamim Khan, Rafiq Ali, Pradeep Kumar, Feroz Ali; 72_Gurki Shergill, Vinod Kumar, Rahul Ganapathy, Monish Bindra, KPS Sekhon.

Amateurs: 74_Ashfaq Ahmed; 76_Ghalib Shah; 82_Suhail Khanday