For the better part of Thursday, Honey Baisoya stayed atop the leaderboard. His round of six-under 66 for a two-shot cushion over Shubhankar Sharma and three clear of Angad Cheema provided a rare sight of Indians occupying the top three slots of a European Tour event.
Before the day ended, Germany’s Yannik Paul sneaked past the Indian trio and signed off with four astonishing birdies to emerge as the late leader with a first-round 65 in the $2 million-dollar Hero Indian Open at the DLF Golf and Country Club here.
Paul, runner-up to Thorborn Olesen in last week’s Thailand Open, got back his touch much after a bogey-birdie start. After six straight pars, the German birdies on either side of the turn. Paul moved to three-under for the day after the 13th.
But the 28-year-old German found a new gear from the 15 to the 18 holes - considered the toughest on the DP World (European) Tour - for a jaw-dropping seven-under finish.
In contrast, in far less breezy conditions, Baisoya had a better front nine. After three pars, Baisoya made his presence felt with a hat-trick of birdies and added more on the 8th and 9th holes for a front-nine 31. Starting the homeward journey with a birdie, he moved to seven-under after the 13th hole. However, a double-bogey on the par-4 14th slowed him down but he did pick up a stroke on the 17th hole to stay ahead until Paul signed off.
Pushed to fourth spot after a final-hole birdie by Finland’s Mikko Korhonen, Shubhankar made up for his unsure start with four back-nine birdies.
Starting from the 10th tee, Shubhankar’s birdies on the 12th and the 13th holes were sandwiched between bogeys on the 11th and 15th. He broke a string of six successive pars with a birdie on the 4th and again on the 6th hole. What made him get close to Baisoya were his birdies on the last two holes.
Angad Cheema also started from the 10th and had a steady phase with a bogey on the 13th and birdie on the 18th. He got noticed on the last seven holes - with a hat-trick of birdies from the third hole, bogey on the sixth and two birdies in succession. His final-hole par kept him in the company of Shubhankar.
LEADERBOARD
First-round scores (Indians unless stated): 65 - Yannik Paul (Ger); 66 - Honey Baisoya; 67 - Mikko Korhonen (Fin); 68 - Shubhankar Sharma, Angad Cheema, Gudmundur Krishtjansson (Isl); 69 - Marcel Siem (Ger)
Other Indians: 70 - M. Dharma, Manu Gandas; 72 - Khalin Joshi; 73 - Veer Ahlawat, Aadil Bedi, Abhijit Singh Chadha, Ajeetesh Sandhu; 74 - Akshay Sharma, Kartik Sharma; 75 - Shiv Kapur, Gaganjeet Bhullar, S. Chikkarangappa, S. S. P. Chawrasia, Sachin Baisoya, Dhruv Sheoran; 76 - Jyoti Randhawa, Rashid Khan, ; 77 - Ahlawat Singh (A), Yuvraj Singh (A), Karandeep Kochar, Om Prakash Chouhan; 78 - Shamim Khan, 79 - Udayan Mane 82 - Varun Parikh, 83 - Abhinav Lohan; 85 - Kshitij Naveed Kaul; 91 - Sandeep Yadav (A).
(Note: Yuvraj Sandhu and Yashas Chandra will complete their final hole of Round One early on Friday).
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