Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) [India], May 19 : On a windswept day at the Coimbatore Golf Club, Adhiraaj Singh Gill braved testing conditions to seize the lead on the opening day of the IGU Southern India Junior Boys Golf Championship on Tuesday.
The 16-year-old from Jalandhar, a relative greenhorn on the IGU circuit, shot two-over 74 for a one-shot lead over the in-form Vihaan Jain (75). Prince Bainsla, winner of the first event of the season, sat a further shot back in third place, according to a release.
The blustery conditions seemed to play havoc with the yardages and club selection, but Gill, playing his first full season on the IGU circuit, held his own on a tough scoring day.
Gill birdied the sixth and ninth holes on the front nine, as well as the 18th. On the closing hole, he shanked his drive into the trees on the right of the tee box but recovered brilliantly. He hit a stunning 3-wood second shot, followed by a wedge to within 12 feet, and drained the putt.
He dropped shots on the fifth, 12th and 16th holes. He had a double bogey on the par-3 seventh hole, where he went right of the green with a 7-iron tee shot.
Vihaan, meanwhile, got off to a rough start, dropping strokes on four straight holes from the fifth. But before much damage could be done, he found his rhythm and range. He picked up a shot on the ninth by holing a 10-foot putt, and made amends for a dropped stroke on the 11th with a 12-foot birdie putt on the 15th to snap at the leader's heels.
Chaitanya Pandey and Shan Alvi were in the lead in Category 'B' (13-14) and Category 'C' (11-12) respectively.
Leading scores (after 18 holes): Category 'A' (15-17 years): 74: Adhiraaj Singh Gill (Punjab); 75: Vihaan Jain (Delhi); 76: Prince Bainsla (Haryana); 77: Vivaan Ubhayakar (Karnataka), Siidhaan Chhibber (Haryana), Nilofer Sivamoorthy (Tamil Nadu).
Category 'B' (13-14): 79: Chaitanya Pandey (Delhi); 81: Saatvic Kumar Singh (Telangana); 82: Siddhant Sharma (Haryana); 83: Vivaan Pinnapureddy (Telangana), Jaibir Singh Kang (Haryana).
Category 'C' (11-12): 82: Shan Alvi (Delhi); 83: Drona Singh Dhull (Haryana); 86: Jot Sarup Gupta (Punjab); 87: Vivaan Singh (Karnataka), Aviraj Singh Aulakh (Maharashtra), Vivaan Vijai (Karnataka).
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