Shubhankar, Digvijay in joint lead

Shubhankar Sharma and Digvijay Singh carded an identical seven-under 63 and be in joint lead after the opening round of the PGTI Players' Championship here on Wednesday.

Shubhankar Sharma had an eagle-birdie-birdie run from 13th to 15th before adding four more birdies on his back nine to close the day on a high.

Young Shubhankar Sharma and seasoned pro Digvijay Singh overcame minor incidents on the Tollygunge Club course to card an identical seven-under 63 and be in joint lead after the opening round of the PGTI Players’ Championship here on Wednesday.

Shubhankar, who received a one-stroke penalty at the start of his round on the 10th hole for inadvertently moving the ball while trying to remove pebbles around it before his second shot, fought back for an eagle-birdie-birdie run from 13th to 15th before adding four more birdies on his back nine to close the day on a high.

Digvijay, who was cautioned by the referee for slow play on 16th, tried to hit close and returned a better result to finish his blemish-free performance.

At tied-third, Divyanshu Bajaj was the highest-placed Kolkata golfer on day one. City-based Shankar Das shared the sixth place with nine others.

The scores: Shubhankar Sharma and Digvijay Singh 63; Honey Baisoya, Divyanshu Bajaj and Karandeep Kochhar (A) 66; Bikramjit Singh Sandhu, Kapil Kumar, Mukesh Kumar, Abhinav Lohan, Abhijit Singh Chadha, Sanjay Kumar, Maniram, Shankar Das and Khalin Joshi 67; C. Muniyappa, Anura Rohana, N. Thangaraja, Manu Gandas, Om Prakash Chouhan, Mohd. Zamal Hossain Mollah and Shivendra Singh Sisodia 68.