Gurkirat Singh establishes 3 stroke lead at Tata Steel Tolly Juniors Challenge

He carded a three-over par 73 on the opening day of the sixth leg of the Tata Steel East Zone Feeder and Sub-Junior Tour.

Hassan Rahman Khandokar, another local lad, trails Gurkirat in the second place as he brought in a card of six-over par 76 to also lead the Category B.  The duo of M Rohind Singh and Udayjit Bhalotia are a further stroke behind in tied third place followed by Sreenjoy Majumder who shot an eight-over 78 in fifth place.

Gurkirat had a tough start under overcast skies starting his round with a hat trick of bogeys before steadying himself with a three pars on the trot. A birdie 4 on the 7th hole was followed by another bogey on the Par 3 8th hole. A regulation par on the Par 4 9th meant he went out three-over par for the day. He immediately managed a birdie on the Par 5 10th hole before dropping another stroke on the 12th hole. A succession of pars followed for the Tata Steel Royal Juniors Challenge winner to come in at three-over par 73.

The boys Category C is led by Sandeep Kumar Yadav (76) who will consider himself the favourite to clinch the title after ending Round 1 with a massive lead of 11 strokes over Rajib Ali (87). Category D is much tighter at the top with Jamshedpur’s Biren Kumar tied at the top with Kaushal Bagrodia and Arav Sanghavi after each shot sixteen-over par 86. Suveer Kapoor follows the trio two strokes behind at eighteen-over par 88.

Kolkata’s Siddhi Kapoor leads Susnata Deb by twelve strokes after she bought in a card of ten-over-par 80. Susnata is the clear favourite to take home the Girls Category B after she shot a twenty-over par 92. Assam’s Esha Sharma (85) comfortably leads the Category C while Aahana Kapoor carded a 101 to lead the Category D.

Top Scores (after 18 holes):

Boys Category A&B:

73 Gurkirat Singh; 76 Hassan Rahman Khandokar (B); 77 M Rohind Singh, Udayjit Bhalotia; 78 Sreenjoy Majumder (B); 80 Mohd. Rohit; 81 Manish Rajak (B), Kunal Naidu, Bishwam Ghosh, Karan Verma

Boys Category C:

76 Sandeep Kumar Yadav; 87 Rajib Ali; 89 Manav Bansal; 91 Divij Sehgal; 92 Pinku Das; 93 Tapas Sardar

Boys Category D:

86 Biren Kumar, Kaushal Bagrodia, Arav Sanghavi; 88 Suveer Kapoor; 91 Joysurjo Dey; 94 Subham Adak

Girls Category A&B:

80 Siddhi Kapoor; 92 Susnata Deb (B); 123 Vanshika Agarwal (B)

Girls Category C:

85 Esha Sharma; 118 Juhi Bhuwalka; 120 Nikita Biswas

Girls Category D:

101 Aahana Kapoor; 110 Vibha Nath

Open Category E (9 holes):

43 Garv Lakhani; 46 Rudraksha Banerjee, Gurmehr Singh Bindra; 49 Manhar Bajoria, Kabir Mehta