Vijay warms up with five-under 67

Vijay Kumar experienced a timely return to form to blast a five-under 67 while Harmeet Kahlon led his team to a fine win at the Pro-Am event of the Rs one million Hero Honda Open, being played at the par-72, KGA Golf Course in Bangalore on Tuesday. The event, the third leg of the Hero Honda Golf Tour will witness the main four-day professional tournament, from August 22 to 25.

Kolkata's Indarjit Bhalotia and his team finished second while Vijay Kumar's effort placed his team at the third spot. Vijay won the "Best Individual Pro Score" award for his effort while the twosome of Shiv Prakash and Digvijay Singh finished runners-up in that category with scores of two-under 70 apiece.

The tournament was placed on a stableford format with the professional's score, which was compulsory totalled with the best two amateur scores over 18 holes, to form the team score.

Chandigarh's Kahlon and his team of Avinash Giri, Indur Hirani and Col. CA Nagaraj aggregated a winning score of 121 points, while Indrajit Bhalotia assisted by KV Reddy, Venugopal Rao and Hitesh Joshi beat the team of Vijay Kumar, Madhur Sood, Rajesh Joshi and Jyothi Ramalingam by the better fourth card after both teams tied at 109 points.

Kahlon, as the pro in the winning team, earned Rs. 5,000 for his effort, while Bhalotia and Vijay Kumar earned Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 2,000 respectively. Vijay Kumar earned an additional Rs. 3,000 for finishing with the "Best Individual Pro Score".

The prizes were given away jointly by Ranjan Gupta, GM Royal Orchid Park Plaza, V P Mahindra, president KGA and the regional manager Hero Honda, at a prize distribution function held at the Royal Orchid Park Plaza hotel later in the evening.

The field for the pro-am included some of the biggest names in Indian golf including leading Asian PGA Tour players like Uttam Singh Mundy, Vivek Bhandari, Amritinder Singh, Gaurav Ghei, Digvijay Singh and Indarjit Bhalotia with the Indian Tour represented by the likes of thrice leader of the Order of Merit, Vijay Kumar, India's top-ranked golfer and twice "Player of the Year" award winner, Mukesh Kumar, leader of this season's Order of Merit and winner of last week's Cotton City Open, Shiv Prakash, last season's "Rookie of the Year" ward winner, Rahul Ganapathy, '98 Indian Open winner, Feroz Ali, twice Indian Open winner ('91 & '93) Ali Sher, joint runner-up at the '99 Indian Open, SSP Chowrasia.