Among the congregation of Asian Tour stars, Khalin Joshi was a non-entity during Tuesday’s pre-event presser. A talented amateur making a pro debut — that’s how one would have probably described him. No one had expected him even in the vicinity of top-10 let alone be at the top of the leaderboard.
On Wednesday, Joshi made a “dream debut” on the Asian Tour with a six-under-par 66 to share the first round lead with world record holder and 2009 champion Chapchai Nirat of Thailand in the first round of the SAIl-SBI Open at the Delhi Golf Club (DGC) here.
The duo holds one-shot lead over Qualifying School winner Chan Kim of US. India’s Chirag Kumar and Siddikur Rahman of Bangladesh were another shot back. Home boy Shiv Kapur recovered well from a disastrous sixth hole quadruple bogey to finish tied sixth with three-under 69.
Meanwhile, defending champion Anirban lahiri produced a disappointing one-under 71 to finish Day 1 at tied 22.
The 20-year-old Joshi, who ended 2012 as India’s number one amateur, turned pro at the start of the year and won the PGTI’s Qualifying School but missed his card at the Asian Tour Qualifying School. During his round of six-under, the rookie produced a superb finish, nearly shooting a hole-in-one on his seventh hole, and recorded nine birdies against three bogeys.
“I’ve been hitting the ball well these past few weeks but the putter was hot (today), hit quite a few good shots. I’m going to approach the rest of the week like the way I did today, just be myself. Anirban is a great friend of mine and I look up to him. I’m looking forward to doing something this week. Indeed, this is my best round at the DGC. It was very nice,” Bangalore-based Joshi said.
Shiv, who came in this event with lots of hopes to win his first home title, suffered a set back to his quest when his tee shot hit a monument and went into the bushes. It was only after taking ‘unplayable’ he could come out of the bush. Probably, the incident disturbed his concentration as he missed the putt on the same hole. “like I was telling Dean Jones (the Australian cricketer), the front nine was like India and the back nine was like Australia,” Shiv joked.
“It was quite disappointing to finish that way. Shooting 29 at the front nine, I set myself up for possibly a very low number. I just had one bad hole on six with a quadruple bogey eight. I don’t think I’ve ever made an eight on that hole in my 20 years of playing here. It saved itself up for the tournament. It’s one of those things that happen in golf and you take it on your chin and move on,” he added.