Mundy smashes record to take lead

Uttam Singh Mundy of Calcutta smashed the course record with a brilliant seven-under 65 at the par-72 Gokarna Golf Club, to open a two-stroke lead after the opening day of the Rs. 900,000 Surya Nepal Masters on Wednesday.

After early morning fog delayed the start of play by almost two hours, the 1997 champion made hay in glorious sunshine and excellent weather as he submitted a card that was studded with eight birdies and one three-putt bogey. Rookie Rahil Gangjee also from Calcutta, was second at five-under 67. Feroz Ali and Sanjay Kumar occupied the joint third place at four-under 68.

Among the Nepalese pros, Radhey Shyam Thapa of Tribhuvan Army Officers Golf Club was the best with a level-par 72 that gave him a tied-13th spot. Local home club pro Deepak Acharya shot a 75 to be in joint 27th place along with Sabin Sapkota of Dharan.

Mundy, who has been playing some excellent golf recently and finished runner-up at the Honda-Siel PGA Championship, the biggest event on the Hero Honda Indian Golf Tour, was in sparkling form. He missed easy birdie chances from less than five feet in his first two holes, but that did not deter the Eveready-sponsored golfer. He came back with a vengeance as he birdied four of the next five holes before making his only bogey of the day on the eighth. However, a birdie on the ninth restored parity and he finished his front-nine at four-under.

On the back-nine, the 36-year-old golfer sank a monster 25-footer to save par on the par-3 10th. Thereafter he birdied the par-5 11th and 12th and the 14th to break Mukesh Kumar’s course record of six-under 66, which was established last year.

"It was just the kind of start I was hoping for. The key to my round was that I hit the ball pretty close. My putting was pretty inconsistent and I missed at least four from within five feet. But that's my game. If I can drop all these putt, I am up there," said Mundy after the round.

Gangjee, who won the HT-Pro golf Lucknow earlier this season in his Rookie year, shot a bogey free 67, that was laced with five birdies. Despite the early morning cold, Gangjee used his red-hot Scotty Cameron putter to good effect as he sank 10-feet birdies on the 10th and 12th to be two-under at the turn. On the back nine, the AV Thomas-sponsored youngster picked up strokes on the second, third and seventh to finish the day at five-under.

"What makes me more happy is the fact that I did not make any silly mistakes. I have had rounds where I made more than five birdies, but this is perhaps only the second round of my career when I went bogey-free. It is a great start and I hope to keep it this way," said the 23-year old, who won the amateur title of Surya Masters Nepal last year.

Bhandari leads amateurs: C B Bhandari led the amateurs with a four-over 76. One stroke behind Bhandari were Raj Pradhan and Mani Rai of Dharan at 77.

SCORES (after 18 holes): 65_Uttam Singh Mundy; 67_Rahil Gangjee; 68_Feroz Ali, Sanjay Kumar; 69_Mohd. Maqbool; 70_Naman Dawar, Harmeet Kahlon, Digvijay Singh, Shiv Prakash, Raju Ali; 71_Rahul Ganapathy, Monish Bindra; 72_Mukesh Kumar, Vijay Kumar, Praduman Guleria, Radhey Shyam Thapa.

NEPALI PROS: 72_Radhey Shyam Thapa; 75_Deepak Achrya, Sabin Sapkota; 76_Purna Sharma; 77_Umesh Nagarkoti; 78_Deepak Thapa Magar; 79_Pashupati Sharma