Aman Raj fires bogey free 61 on day one, leads IGPL Kolkata by four shots

Kolkata, Oct 29 (PTI) Aman Raj carded a stunning 9-under 61 to open a big four-shot lead over the field on the first day of the IGPL Invitational Kolkata here on Wednesday.

On an overcast day at the Tollygunge Golf Club, Aman continued from where he had left off last week at Jaipur and produced a bogey free 61, his third such score in the last four rounds.

Aman had shot 61 in the first and second rounds of the IGPL Jaipur last week.

He is now four-shots clear of second-placed Aalaap IL (65) on a day during which play was suspended for just under an hour due to the threat of lightning.

But the players handled the stoppage and wet conditions well, and 26 players shot par or better.

And none did it better than Aman. He birdied the third, sixth, seventh and the ninth.

Aman added further gains on the 10th, 12th, 13th, 15th, and the 16th.

Aalaap, who was in the top-10 in Pune, shot one of his best rounds of the season. After starting from the 10th he had three birdies and an eagle and no bogeys.

The top woman star was Rhea Purvi, just outside the top-10 at 2-under 68 and tied-11th with six others.

The 30-year-old Aman was pleased with his show on the day.

“It is very satisfying to be able to come up with a string of low scores. The confidence and the game have slowly been coming back,” said Aman, who ended a 22-month title drought by winning IGPL Jaipur recently.

Aman is trying to emulate Gaganjeet Bhullar’s feat of back-to-back wins in the first two events at Chandigarh and Jaypee Greens.

Mysuru-based Aalaap was second at 5-under 65, while four players including the Bengaluru boy, Syed Saqib Ahmed, Olympian Udayan Mane, playing only his second IGPL event, left-hander Kartik Sharma and Aditya Raj Kumar Chauhan were tied for the third place at 4-under 66.

Udayan Mane, who was tied-sixth in his maiden IGPL start in Jaipur, opened with 4-under 66 and was tied-third. PTI UNG