Sports News | Chouhan Starts with Round of 71 in Bahrain
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. Indian golfer Om Prakash Chouhan, playing his maiden season on the DP World Tour, dropped a late double bogey for an opening round card of 1-under 71 at the Bahrain Championship here.
Bahrain, Feb 2 (PTI) Indian golfer Om Prakash Chouhan, playing his maiden season on the DP World Tour, dropped a late double bogey for an opening round card of 1-under 71 at the Bahrain Championship here.
He was placed T-69 and will need a sharp second round to make his first DP World Tour cut outside India.
Chouhan, who won the PGTI's Order of Merit to grab a full card to the DP World Tour, missed the cut last week in Ras Al Khaimah.
In Bahrain, where he is the lone Indian as Shubhankar Sharma has taken the week off, Chouhan did a fine job by picking three of his birdies on the Par-5s and putted well.
He bogeyed the second and the fourth, but birdies on the par-5 third and Par-3 seventh from 16 feet meant he turned in even par. A birdie on the par-5 11th from nine feet and a hole out from 27 yards on the Par-5 14th saw him get to 2-under but a double bogey on Par-3 16th ruined his card. He did manage a 13-foot birdie on the 18th for a 71.
Tom Vaillant posted a bogey-free eight under par round of 64 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round. The Frenchman carded a superb five under par back nine - including back-to-back birdies to finish - to move one stroke clear of Switzerland's Joel Girrbach and South African Zander Lombard.
A benign day in the Kingdom of Bahrain set the scene for perfect scoring conditions, with 84 of the 132-strong field finishing in red numbers after day one, with a hot start essential due to forecasted high winds on Friday.
Canada's Aaron Cockerill, Dane Sebastian Friedrichsen, Spain's Alejandro del Rey and South African Ockie Strydom share fourth place on six under par, one clear of a group of five on five under par including England's Marcus Armitage, who recorded his first professional hole-in-one at the par three 12th hole.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)