Randhawa lead Indian charge at tied 8th; Jeev tied 38th in France

Paris, June 29 (UNI) After having missed the top-10 finish at the BMW Championship in Munich by a whisker last weekend, Jyoti Randhawa continued his fine form into the Open de France Alstom with a strong opening round card of three-under 68 at tied eighth here.

His illustrious compatriot Jeev Milkha Singh, however was slow to get off the blocks, carding an even par 71 to lie three strokes behind Randhawa, at tied 38th spot.

Another Indian in the fray, Shiv Kapur faced the opening day blues as he came up with a horrendous four-over 75 to languish at tied 102nd spot.

If not for a double-bogey on the 13th hole, Randhawa would have been lying inside the top-5 after firing in five birdies including a hatrick of them from third hole against a lone bogey on the eighth hole.

Jeev, in contrast looked out of sorts as he could gain only three strokes while dropping an equal number of them at the Le Golf National golf course.

Meanwhile, Kapur, who had finished tied 22nd last weekend behind Randhawa and Jeev, had an eventful round, mixing a couple of birdies against four bogeys, alongwith a double-bogey.

Atop the leaderboard, South African James Kamte and Kyron Sullivian of Wales share one-stroke lead after brilliant opening round cards of six-under 65s.

Now Randhawa has a terrfic chance to register his fourth top-10 finish on the European Tour this year after missing it last weekend with a tied 11th spot finish while world no. 57 Jeev will look to better his tied 18th spot finish at the same event.

UNI