Jakarta, Indonesia, 12-07-2018

Udayan Mane, Khalin Joshi enjoy solid starts with scores of 67 in Indonesia, lie tied third

The Indian duo of Udayan Mane and Khalin Joshi got off to solid starts at the Asian Tour's Bank BRI Indonesia Open as both shot scores of five-under-67.

Mane and Joshi were one shot off the lead in tied third. The lead was held by American Johannes Veerman and Australian Matthew Millar.

While Udayan came up with a bogey-free round on Thursday, Khalin mixed six birdies with a bogey at the US$ 500,000 event.

Mane said, "The great thing about today was that I was bogey-free. That was a big thing for me. Not only that, I drove really well. I hit about 10 fairways and if I didn’t hit the fairway, my ball was in the first cut. Hitting approach shots and predicting what the greens would do became a lot simpler. I hit some really good putts that caught the lip and didn’t go in, but I’ll take an opening five-under-par any time.

"This is my second time playing on this course. I played well last year but I hope to better my result this year. I’m still new on the Asian Tour. A lot of bad scores were from the fact that I am intimidated by the field and I wasn’t sure about myself. Whereas back in India on the PGTI, I won six times over three years. I have to carry that mindset into these tournaments. It’s a gradual process and it is going to get better."

Joshi, an Asian Tour regular, said, "Finally, things are working out for me. I’m getting used to the speed today. After last week, I had to adjust because the greens are faster here. I left a few putts on the line and on the hole. Overall, I’m pretty happy with my game. I holed some good putts and had a par save. I made bogey on five, where I hit a poor shot. But, five-under-par to start is pretty good.

"The wind picked up in the afternoon, during my back nine at least. It’s not as calm as the morning. You’re always in between clubs because of the wind. The key is to hit the fairways. The lines on the greens are hard to read as well. I’m going to work on hitting the ball better off the tee.  

"The pitch marks on the greens can affect the scoring as well. On some holes, there were five pitch marks on my line. The greens also got firmer towards the end of the round. You have to cater for three to five yards for the roll. The key is still to keep the ball on the fairways."

Jyoti Randhawa and Gaganjeet Bhullar were both tied 18th having fired rounds of three-under-69.

Shiv Kapur's 70 placed him tied 32nd while Jeev Milkha Singh and Chiragh Kumar were both tied 45th at 71.

At the European Tour's Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open, India's Shubhankar Sharma carded a two-under-68 in the first round to be placed tied 45th, five off the lead.

Elsewhere, at the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic, India's Arjun Atwal returned a first round score of two-under-69 to be tied 56th.