DOMINGO LEADS FROM McARTHUR IN CHALLENGE TOUR OPENER

REPORT FROM EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS

By NEIL AHERN 
Five birdies in the opening six holes gave Andrew McArthur a flying start to the 2013 European Challenge Tour season as the Glasgow man (pictured) finished the opening day with a five-under-par 67, one shot off Austin Domingo’s lead at the Gujarat Kensville Challenge.

McArthur, who finished 45^th in the Challenge Tour Rankings last year, had been working hard on his putting during the winter break and right from the off his putter was on fire, holing a thirty footer at the 10^th – his first – for birdie.

He followed that up by rolling a 12 footer into the cup on the 12^th before another 30 footer from the back fringe at the 13^th dropped and two more birdies at the 14^th and 15^th holes meant he roared into an early lead at the sun-kissed Kensville Golf and Country Club, outside Ahmedabad in western India.

That run was followed by a bogey at the 15^th but three more birdies on the back nine helped the one-time Challenge Tour winner to a five under score of 67 to leave him a shot back in tied second place alongside India’s Shiv Kapur.

“I just got off to a flyer and before I knew it I was five under after six,” said the 33 year old. “Then I started pulling a couple of iron shots but I bounced back with some decent shots as well and holed another couple of 15 footers but I didn’t hit it close all day.

“I have done a lot of work since the middle of last year on my putting. I was struggling and I went to (putting coach) Phil Kenyon for some help.

“It has made the world of difference in terms of my confidence. I know now why I've missed a putt whereas before I was guessing and chopping and changing with different putters every tournament but I have stuck with the same putter for four or five months and it’s working pretty alright at the moment!”

Compatriot Wallace Booth was a shot further back alongside Frenchman Victor Riu and Sweden’s Jacob Glennemo as they all carded four under par opening rounds of 68.

FIRST ROUND SCOREBOARD

Par 72

66 A Domingo (Esp) ,

67 S Kapur (Ind) , A McArthur  (Sco) ,

68 V Riu  (Fra) , J Glennemo (Swe) , W Booth  (Sco) ,

69 M Perera (Sri) , G Murray  (Sco) , A Pavan (Ita) , J Dantorp (Swe) , F McGuirk  (Eng) ,

70 O Chouhan (Ind) , T Sluiter  (Ned) , S Tiley (Eng) , B Koepka  (USA) , A Malik (Ind) , F Praegant (Aut) , J Lima  (Por) , V Singh (Ind) ,

71 G Bhullar (Ind) , P Uihlein  (USA) , L Jensen (Den) , R Khan  (Ind) , S O'Hara  (Sco) , F Colombo (Ita) , R Enoch  (Wal) , H Rai (Ind) , T Pilkadaris (Aus) ,

72 K Joshi (Ind) , J Ruth  (Eng) , D Vancsik (Arg) , R Sharma (Ind) , D Denison  (Eng) , D Kemmer (USA) , B Parker  (Eng) , R Murthy (Ind) , G Ghei (Ind) , R Gangjee (Ind) , R Bajaj (Ind) , S Barr (Aus) , G Shaw (Nir) , D Wuensche  (Ger) ,

73 C Ford (Eng) , A Singh Chadha (Ind) , T Hatton (Eng) , D Singh (Ind) , A Sandhu (Ind) , S Das (Ind) , C Kumar (Ind) , D Bajaj (Ind) , B An (Kor) , S Hutsby  (Eng) , A Tiwana (Ind) , M Kumar (Ind) , C Kim (USA) , A Sher (Ind) , R Beem (USA) , S Engell Andersen  (Ken) , D Im (USA) , J Barnes (Eng) , J Garcia Pinto (Esp) , P Archer (Eng) , M Ali (Ind) ,

74 A Bernadet  (Fra) , D Brooks (Eng) , S Bhaduri (Ind) , J Garcia  (Esp) , S Chikkarangappa (Ind) , A Singh Chauhan (Ind) , H Baisoya (Ind) , A Kuhar (Ind) , F De Vries  (Ned) , T Haylock  (Eng) ,

75 D Singh Kullar (Ind) , T Murray (Eng) , J Moul  (Eng) , N Ravano (Ita) , B Hebert  (Fra) , R Davies (Wal) , V Kumar (Ind) , A Jha  (Ind) , P Kumar (Ind) , S Sharma (Ind) ,

76 N Mandal (Ind) , M Glauert (Ger) , R Hilton (Ind) , N Dawar (Ind) , H Bacher (Aut) , R Russell (Sco) , K Bhasin (Aus) , A Cheema (Ind) , G Delhi (Ind) , R Ali Mollah (Ind) , S Sharma (Ind) , A Velasco (Esp) , R Ghotra (Ind) , J Senior (Eng) , S Shaikh (Ind) ,

77 M Dharma (Ind) , G Giddie  (Ken) , C Aguilar  (Esp) , P Dwyer (Eng) , K Kumar (Ind) ,

78 D Griffiths  (Eng) , R Dinwiddie  (Eng) 

79 J Howarth (Eng) , E Dubois (Fra) ,

80 A Kumar Chauhan (Ind) , M Singh Pathania (Ind) , A Saini (Ind) , M Haremza (Ger) , A Bajrang Mane (Ind) , L Goddard  (Eng) , G Mann (Ind) ,

81 K Vasudeva (Ind) , C Brazillier  (Fra) , K Borsheim  (Nor) ,

82 R Sardar (Ind) ,

84 B Singh (Ind) ,

86 R Singh (Ind) ,

 

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Agustin Domingo stormed into the first round lead in the Challenge Tour’s season-opening Gujarat Kensville Challenge as he set a new course record at Kensville Golf and Country Club with a six under par 66.
That handed the Spaniard a one-shot advantage over Scotland’s Andrew McArthur and India’s Shiv Kapur at the sun-kissed venue outside the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.
In benign conditions, Domingo opened with a par and while he chipped in from the back of the green on the second hole he could not build any momentum from that stroke of luck and proceeded to bogey the par four seventh hole.
His round took flight at the turn, however, as the 31 year old carded back to back birdies at the ninth and tenth holes before gaining two more shots at the 12th and 14th.
He then finished in style by holing a 15 footer on the par five 17th before putting the icing on the cake of a fine day’s golf with a 25 footer for birdie at the last.
 “I'm really happy to have a course record,” said Domingo, whose uncle is former European Tour player and winner on the Senior Tour, Domingo Hospital. “I had one as an amateur at a new course way back when I was young so this is the first time since then.
“I didn’t expect to have such a good day. I have been training three weeks and I didn’t feel too good going into this tournament but everything just went well.
“I started well but didn’t make any of my birdie putts and then I chipped in at the second hole for birdie so that was really nice and gave me a boost and the putts on the final two holes were really nice.”
Domingo revealed he had had a late night prior to the opening round, but he certainly was not occupying himself with beer or wine in the alcohol-free state of Gujarat – instead he was up in front of the television watching his beloved Barcelona FC as they were held to a 1-1 draw in “El Clasico” against Real Madrid.
“I am a huge Barcelona fan,” he said. “The match ended at 3.15 in the morning and then I went to bed until about 10.30 this morning but it all went well today thankfully!”
Kapur, meanwhile, is chasing his first Challenge Tour victory and The European Tour regular got off to a strong start with a five under par round of 67 to share second place with McArthur.
One of the major features of the tournament in previous years has been the battle between Indians and Europeans, with home favourite Gaganjeet Bhullar winning the inaugural event in 2011 before Germany’s Max Kieffer beat another Indian Rahil Gangjee in a play-off last year, and Kapur is confident of challenging after claiming a victory on the Professional Golf Tour of India at the end of 2012.
“Any time you play, you aim to win and I had a good back end of last year. I put myself in contention and I won the last tournament I played in so I’m coming into this week with positive thoughts and I hope I can carry that on.
“It was good solid golf today. On the front nine I left a lot of putts out there but I hit the ball pretty solid all day and gave myself a lot of chances - the longest putt I had all day was 6 feet so I struck it really well so no complaints.”