Randhawa, Joshi shine as Mumbai, Chennai share spoils

Veteran Jyoti Randhawa and young upstart Khalin Joshi set the pace in fine fashion as their respective teams shared the spoils on the opening day of the Louis Philippe Cup here on Thursday.

On a sweltering day at the Karnataka Golf Association, Laqshya Mumbai’s Randhawa and Joshi, teeing up for TAKE Chennai, shot matching three-under 69s as their respective teams took a joint two-shot lead after totalling 140.

Mukesh Kumar, with a 71, was the second highest contributer for Mumbai, while Joshi’s friend and fellow local lad S Chikkarangappa too hit a 71 for Chennai. Jaypee Greens Greater Noida were in third place at 142 with Zion Hills Bengaluru sharing the fourth spot at 143 with three other teams.

“It was a tough day,” said Joshi despite playing a superb round. “I could have done much better but struggled a lot with my putting. The putter that I changed during this year’s Indian Open did wonders for me from February to about three weeks ago but over the last two weeks it has been going the other way around.”

After parring the opening four holes, Joshi birdied the fifth with a brilliant 15-foot putt. He then sunk a six-footer birdie on the sixth before dropping a shot on the eighth after going over the green. He recovered immediately though, picking up a shot on the 10th and then added one each on the 15th and 16th respectively.

Just when it seemed he would enter the clubhouse on a high, he found the trees on the 17th that cost him second bogey for the day.Randhawa started his day with a birdie on the opening hole but then could only manage a bogey on the seventh hole in the opening half. He then switched gears on the inward journey, blasting birdies on the 11th, 12th, 15th and 16th before a bogey on the closing 18th dampened his spirits.

 “I had a game plan in mind and played very well accordingly. I would love to take the under-par scores any day but overall it was a great day.”


Scores (after 18 holes, only top two considered for computation): 140: Laqshya Mumbai (Jyoti Randhawa 69, Mukesh Kumar 71, Manav Jaini 72), TAKE Chennai (Khalin Joshi 69, S Chikkarangappa 71, SSP Chawrasia 74); 142: Jaypee Greens Greater Noida (Gaganjeet Bhullar 72, Rashid Khan 72, Shamim Khan 70); 143: Navratna Ahmedabad (Mithun Perera 74, Anura Rohana 76, Shankar Das 69), Zion Hills Bengaluru (Rahil Gangjee 73, C Muniyappa 70, Abhijit Chadha 73); DLF The Crest Gurgaon (Shubhankar Sharma 70, Manu Gandas 73, Abhinav Lohan 78); Dev-Ellora Pune (Om Prakash Chouhan 71, Sanjay Kumar 72, Siddikur 76).