Little-known Mohammad Nawab surged into his first ever lead with a career-best seven under 63 in the opening round of the Rs 1.5 million Tata Open 2004, an Amby Valley PGAI Tour event, at the Beldih & Golmuri Golf Courses in Jamshedpur on Tuesday.
Nawab's achievement came at the par-70 Golmuri Golf Course, which was also the scene of Chandigarh's Amritinder Singh 16th career hole-in-one.
The tournament is being played over two courses, the other being the par-72 Beldih Golf Course.
The format has half the field playing on one course and the other half on the other on day one, with the order reversed the following day.
The final two rounds (after the cut is applied), will have the golfers playing nine holes on each course during their 18-hole sojourn.
Delhi's Shiv Kapur fired a six-under 64 at Golmuri to settle at second place, one stroke better than fellow-Delhi golfer and Amby Valley PGAI Tour leader Ashok Kumar, who shot a five-under 65 also at the Golmuri to occupy the third position.
At the Beldih, the lowest cards of the day were returned by Delhi's Ali Sher, Kanpur's Shiv Prakash and Bangalore's C Muniyappa, who each shot a four-under 68.
Mohd. Nawab was once an avid cricketer but on the insistence of his elder brother, Mohd. Islam, he shifted focus to golf. The Patna-based Nawab, today had a dream outward journey where after birdying the fourth, he reeled off four straight birdies from the sixth to the ninth, chipping in twice, on the sixth and eighth.
On his back-nine, a birdie on the tenth, his fifth consecutive one was followed by an unfortunate dropped shot on the 11th where his tee shot found the bunker. Nawab, however, more than made up with birdies on the 12th and16th.
"My career-best finish is a seventh place effort at the Patna Open in 1998. I will aim to beat that this week." said the 26-year-old who equalled his previous best round of three-under at the ONGC-Noida Open earlier this season.
Asian Games gold medallist Shiv Kapur along with Ashok Kumar was the center of attraction today. Shiv, much like Ashok, did not disappoint. The 22-year-old rookie, who this season won a title in his very second Tour appearance at the Amby Valley - MGC Open 2004 (Chennai) dropped a shot on the second where he two putted from six feet. Thereafter, the golfer let loose a string of birdies on the third, fifth, eighth, tenth, 11th, 12th, 16th and 17th and would have tied for the lead but for an unfortunate bogey on the18th.
"My game is great right now and I am looking forward to the contest on the tougher Beldih Golf Course tomorrow," he said.
Shiv's childhood rival, 23-year-old Ashok, who currently leads the Money List with a tally of Rs 7,09,000, had six birdies studding his card. These came on the second, fourth, seventh, 13th, 15th and 16th. Only once did he err, this in the form of a bogey on the ninth where he missed a chip putt.
"The Beldih golf course is a tighter one than Golmuri, where I played today. Tomorrow, I'll have to keep my wits about to stay in contention," he surmised.
Navtez leads amateur field: Navtez Singh shot a three-over 73 at Golmuri to assume a one-stroke lead over Karun Taunk, who shot a four-over 76 at Beldih.
SCORES (after18 holes): Golmuri (par-70): 63 Mohd. Nawab; 64 Shiv Kapur; 65 Ashok Kumar; 66 Digvijay Singh, Gurbaaz Mann; 67 Amit Dube; 68 Uttam Mundy, Roop Singh; 69 Binod Pandey, Basad Ali SCORES Beldih (par 72): 68 Ali Sher, Shiv Prakash, C Muniyappa; 69 Vijay Kumar, Mohd. Maqbool, Chini Ali, Randhir Ghotra; 70 Sanjay Kumar, Mukesh Kumar DS Raghivanshi.Mohd. Salim.