DP World India C'ship: Gangjee's stunning finish places him Tied 4th; Shane leads

New Delhi, Oct 16 (PTI) Veteran golfer Rahil Gangjee turned back the clock with a spectacular eagle on the final hole, carding a brilliant five-under 67 on the opening day to emerge as the best placed Indian at the inaugural DP World India Championship, here Thursday.

The buzz was all about five-time Major champion Rory McIlroy's India debut but it was 2019 Open winner Shane Lowry who steadily compiled eight birdies, including five consecutive from holes 11 to 15, to fire a flawless 64 and grab a one-shot lead over Japan's Keita Nakajima (66).

Gangjee, the 47-year-old who is ranked 946th in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), fired four birdies and a bogey before producing a stunning finish with a monstrous putt for eagle, raising his arms in celebration to lie tied fourth at the tricky Delhi Golf Course.

"It's great to finish 5-under on the first round. My game has been okay last week but not so great before that. So I'm really, really glad it turned out this way today," said Gangjee, who finished third last week at the Bengaluru Open.

"I've been a bit too serious with the game over the past eight months and haven't been having fun. But last week and this week, I've been enjoying it. I guess that's the way to play golf.

"I've played this course a thousand times, so I wasn't shocked by my performance. But considering my results in the last eight months, I wasn't expecting this. I made some changes to my putting stroke and grip, so I'm glad it's working out." The Kolkata-born two-time Asian Tour champion finished three shots behind leader Lowry, who also produced an exciting finish with a birdie at the 18th.

"My iron play is one of my strengths and I took advantage of that today and managed to roll a few puts in on the back nine, which was nice," said the 38-year-old Lowry, who last played in India in 2010.

The Ryder Cup hero said he had low expectations coming into the tournament. "I played pretty poorly in Madrid last week. And to be honest, I didn't do any practice at the weekend. But I played really good in the ProAM yesterday. So I was pretty happy where my game was at then.

"But I didn't know what to expect, to be honest. I just wanted to go out there and shoot the best score I could. And thankfully, that was pretty good." Japan's Keita Nakajima (66), who led early on before Lowry surged ahead in fading evening light, and Casey Jarvis (66) were placed second and third respectively.

Tommy Fleetwood and Luke Donald both finished with four-under 68.

Gangjee shared fourth spot with Jannik De Bruyn (67) and Jorge Campillo (67), while early in the day, Dhruv Sheoran (68) and Yuvraj Sandhu (69) showed promise, ending tied seventh and 17th respectively.

Indian star Anirban Lahiri got off to a good start but a bogey at the ninth spoiled his card, as he finished two-under 70 to lie tied 28th.

Shubhankar Sharma had a tough day, carding four bogeys, a double bogey and four birdies for a two-over 74, placing him 99th. Abhinav Lohan (70) and Tapendra Ghai (71) were other Indians who finished under par.

A huge crowd gathered in the morning to watch McIlroy, who delivered plenty of excitement on a topsy-turvy day. Starting on the back nine, the Northern Irishman birdied his first hole but slipped with back-to-back bogeys before picking up five shots and then dropping a bogey at the eighth.

"I'd say 16-18 under par is a reasonable target for the winning score. My approach will remain the same – hope to make a few better shots and hole a few more putts," McIlroy told PTI.

"It's pretty tricky out there. You try to be as conservative as possible off the tee and then pick off birdies on the par-5s and maybe a couple more." Apart from Gangjee's stunning eagle finish, there were many highlights on the opening day, including bunker brilliance from Tommy Fleetwood at the 14th, Marcus Armitage's chip-in at the 12th, John Parry's bunker shot holing out at the 11th, and Eugenio Chacarra's tricky birdie putt from off the fifth green. PTI ATK AT