Ranjit leads, Jyoti Randhawa, Blackwell card four-under 68

Gurgaon, May 10 (UNI) Chandigarh's Ranjit Singh carded a six-under 66 to take the first round lead at the Rs. 65 Lakh DLF Masters Golf here today.

Jyoti Randhawa and Australia's Richard Backwell were tied for second place at four-under 68.

C Muniyappa and Gaurav Diwan tied at three-under 69, while Amardip Malik, Mukesh Kumar, Deepinder Kullar, Himmat Rai, Vijay Kumar were a stroke behind at two-under 70.

Naman Dawar, Harendra Gupta, SSP Chowrasia, MD Salim and Digvijay Singh were tied at one-under 71 after the first round.

Ghei shot a level-par 72 and is tied alongside Randhir Ghotra, Shamim Khan, M Dharma, Gurbaaz Mann and Shiv Kapur.

Ranjit Singh teed off from the tenth and birdied his very first hole. He picked up another birdie on the par-four 12th hole, but dropped a shot on the 13th. He recovered with birdies on the 14th and 17th holes to make the turn at three-under 33.

Ranjit then birdied the second, fifth and sixth holes, but dropped a stroke on the par-three eight hole. A final birdie on the par-five ninth hole saw him card a six-under 66.

Randhawa bogeyed the second hole of the day and then chipped to 15-feet and two-putted for a bogey. He recovered with a birdie on the par-three third but dropped a stroke on the fourth.

However, he made no errors thereafter and birdied the fifth, seventh, 10th, 17th and 18th holes to card a four-under 68.

Backwell started the day with a birdie on the first, but bogeyed the second. He dropped another shot on the fifth, once again hitting his ball into the right rough, but a birdie on the ninth saw him make the turn at level-par for the day.

The Australian then birdied the 15th and 17th holes, and an eagle on the last resulted in a four-under 68.

Scores: 66-Ranjit Singh; 68-Jyoti Randhawa, Richard Backwell; 69-C Muniyappa, Gaurav Diwan; 70-Amardip Singh Malik, Mukesh Kumar, DS Kullar, Himmat Rai, Vijay Kumar; 71-MD Salim, Naman Dawar, Harendra Gupta, SSP Chowrasia, Digvijay Singh.

UNI