Golf: Shamim Khan is early pacesetter at Ahmedabad Open

Ahmedabad, April 19 Shamim Khan of Delhi struck a five-under 31 to be the early pacesetter at the Ahmedabad Open 2023, a Rs. 1 crore event, being played at the Glade One Golf Resort & Club, here on Wednesday.

Sri Lankan Mithun Perera, Bangladesh's Jamal Hossain, Delhi's Kshitij Naveed Kaul, Faridabad's Abhinav Lohan and Greater Noida's Arjun Bhati, were bunched in tied second place with scores of three-under 33 at the tournament presented by Glade One.

The first two rounds of the event comprise nine holes each. After 18 holes the cut will be applied. The third and fourth rounds will then comprise 18 holes each. The tournament will be played over a total of 54 holes. The par for the course in the first two rounds is 36.

Shamim, a two-time PGTI Order of Merit champion, carried forward his good form from the last two events where he finished inside the top-20. The 44-year-old, who has had a victory-drought since 2019, was quick off the blocks on Wednesday with birdies on the second and third. Khan then made three birdie conversions from a range of 10 to 30 feet to end the day in a commanding position.

"I hit some decent form of late. I'm now trying to build on that. Importantly, I made a couple of good putts early on in my round today that gave me the much-needed momentum. If you're playing only nine holes, a good start is half the job done. I also managed to close it out well with birdies on the last two holes. Adjusting well to the green-speed will be the key here this week," said Shamim.

Shravan Desai (35) occupying tied 17th position was the highest-placed among the Ahmedabad-based golfers.

Round 1 Leaderboard:

31: Shamim Khan

33: Mithun Perera, Kshitij Naveed Kaul, Abhinav Lohan, Jamal Hossain, Arjun Bhati