2008 SAIL Open - Round 1: Bain and Carolan share lead with 66

Scotsman Ross Bain and Australian Tony Carolan made good use of the near-perfect conditions under a warm sun to bring home six-under-par 66 each for the first round lead at the Sail Open Presented by Jaypee Greens on Wednesday.

Local hero Jyoti Randhawa, one of the big pre-tournament favourites who loves the wide fairways of the Jaypee Greens course, missed a five-foot putt for par on his closing hole at the US$400,000 event.

On a wide open course, with no rough, the going was fairly easy. Bain, 32, and Carolan, 39, both looking for their maiden Asian Tour wins, were a stroke ahead of six other players who carded matching 67s that include Randhawa, big-hitting Australian Scott Hend and compatriots Peter Cooke and Adam Groom, Singapore’s Lam Chih Bing and Fijian Dinesh Chand.

Randhawa and Chih Bing have both won on Jaypee Greens, which in the past has hosted the flagship event of the Indian Professional Golf Tour of India. "I like this course as I have won once and finished second (to Randhawa) in the past," said Chih Bing, who had five birdies and no bogeys for a flawless card.

Up ahead on the leaderboard, Ross Bain who went through the Qualifying School earlier this year, shot a bogey-free 66 to take the early lead.

Bain's round of 66 included an eagle on the 12th hole and birdies on the fourth, eighth, 15th and 16th holes.

"It was a pretty solid round. I did have some poor shots on the front nine, but got away with it as there is not much rough," said the Dubai-based Scot, who last year played in all four rounds and was the highest placed Scotsman at the British Open.

"I felt I could go lower today, but had a lipout on the 17th and left my putt hanging on the hole on the 18th," he added before predicting a low-scoring tournament with a total of about 20-under being what it will take for a win.

Randhawa was on fire starting with an eagle two, when he almost drove the green on the short 354 yards par four 10th hole, where he started the day's action. He was just about 10 feet short of the green but decided to use the putter and holed it.

He then sank birdies on the 13th and 18th holes to be four under at the turn. He then birdied the second and the seventh, but dropped a shot on the ninth. "I went into the left trees and came out pretty well, but missed a short five-foot putt for par," he said.

"It was a good start, but disappointing to finish with a bogey on the ninth," said Randhawa, who can hit the ball long. "As for the course, well when you feel a little disappointed after shooting a five-under, that says all about the course."

"The highlight of the day came right at the start with that eagle two. I drove to just about 10 feet short of the green and then decided to putt from there and it dropped.

"Things (score) could have been better but I missed a few short ones of about four to five feet," said Randhawa.

Australian Hend shot a round of 67 that included six birdies against a lone bogey.

"It's a nice challenging course, because you need to put the ball on the right side of the hole to have a good putt. The greens are a little grainy and difficult to putt on. And I was playing the back nine for the first time," said Hend.

"I hope to go out early and take advantage of the conditions tomorrow," he added.

Behind Randhawa, the next best Indian was Dinesh Kumar, who brought home a 68 to lie in tied ninth spot.

Four other Indians, veteran Ali Sher, Harinder Gupta, Vinod Kumar and unheralded Gaurav Pratap Singh all fired matching 69s in a tie for 15th place.

SSP Chowrasia, making his first appearance since winning the Emaar-MGF Indian Masters two weeks ago, had a relatively quiet day with an even par 72 that placed him in 51st place in a bunch with 32 others including seasoned Gaurav Ghei, Amandeep Johl, Harmeet Kahlon and youngsters Anirban Lahiri and Rahul Ganapathy.

Chowrasia said: "My hitting and putting were not good today. I paid the penalty for landing my strokes in the bunker on the eighth and ninth but then came back well with birdies on the 17th and 18th holes," said Chowrasia.

Leading round one scores (click here for full leaderboard):
66 - Ross Bain SCO), Tony Carolan AUS)
67 - Lam Chih Bing (SIN), Peter Cooke (AUS), Dinesh Chand (FIJ), Adam Groom AUS), Jyoti Randhawa (IND), Scott Hend (AUS)
68 - Will Yanagisawa (USA), Dinesh Kumar (IND), Noh Seung-yul KOR), Wu Ashun CHN), Angelo Que (PHI), Danny Chia (MAS)
69 - Vinod Kumar (IND), Yasin Ali (ENG), Zhang Lian-wei (CHN), Ben Leong (MAS), Mark Bro (NZL), Wang Ter-Chang (TPE), Kim Young-jin KOR), Ali Sher (IND)
Harinder Gupta (IND), Bae Sang-moon (KOR), Gaurav Pratap Singh (IND)
70 - Neven Basic AUS), Lloyd Saltman (SCO), Richard Gallichan (AUS), Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND), Ashok Kumar (IND), Raj Randhawa (USA), Karanjit Singh (IND), Taichiro Kiyota (JPN), David Bransdon (AUS), Kane Webber (AUS)
Kodai Ichihara (JPN), Rhys Davies (WAL)

February 20, 2008

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