Forest Hills Golf Resort, Mohali, 10-09-2013

Arjun Singh Chaudhri shoots fiery 65 for round one lead

Akshay Sharma placed second

Arjun Singh Chaudhri of Noida shot a fiery five-under-65 to be the round one leader at the PGTI Feeder Tour event being played at the Forest Hills Golf Resort in Mohali district in Punjab. Akshay Sharma of Chandigarh is in second place at three-under-67.

Arjun Singh Chaudhri's bogey-free 65 at the par-70 course came as a result of some excellent hitting. Arjun, the current Feeder Tour Order of Merit leader, began the day with birdies on the first two holes as he landed it within three feet on both occasions. The 34-year-old converted a six feet putt for birdie on the fifth to move to three-under for the day. Chaudhri's tee shot stopped two feet from the hole on the 11^th to set up another birdie. His final birdie of the day came on the 14^th where he holed an eight-footer.

Chaudhri said, “I was in good hitting form today. I hit 16 greens in regulation and landed it close on a consistent basis. One has to keep it in play on this course as there are a lot of hazards. The five-stroke victory in the first event of the Feeder Tour season at Faridabad had given me a lot of confidence and I've been playing well since then.”

Akshay Sharma of Chandigarh fired four birdies against a lone bogey in his round of 67 to be placed second.

Moinuddin Malak of Pune occupies third place at one-under-69 while the 2010 Feeder Tour Order of Merit champion Maniram Sharma of Karnal is in fourth place at even-par-70.

Panchkula's Angad Cheema and the Chandigarh duo of Rajiv Kumar Jatiwal and Roop Singh are in tied fifth place at one-over-71 along with Delhi's Honey Baisoya, Shubhankar Sharma of Gurgaon and Patna golfer Md Nawab.

Ashbeer Saini of Kapurthala is placed tied 11^th along with Rajinder of Chandigarh and Delhi's Wasim Khan.

The two seasoned Chandigarh professionals Ranjit Singh (six-over-76) and Harmeet Kahlon (eight-over-78) finished the day in tied 32^nd place and tied 44^th place respectively. 

The top-36 players (and ties) will make the cut at the end of round two on Wednesday.