Hyderabad golfer Mohammed Azhar shot a superb seven-under 64 to emerge leader by one stroke on the opening day of the `1 crore The Poona Club Open, here on Tuesday. PGTI Order of Merit leader Yuvraj Sandhu fired six-under 65 to be placed second at the Poona Club Golf Course, while Gurugram’s Veer Ahlawat (66), the 2024 PGTI Ranking champion, was a further shot behind in third position. The quintet of Akshay Damale, Aaron Rockey, Aditya Bhandarkar, Adityaa Garg and amateur Arkin Patel were the highest-placed among the Pune-based players as they returned scores of 71 to occupy tied 29th place.
Azhar, who has been in decent form in recent times with four top-10s to his name in his last six starts, began his week with a birdie-bogey. However, he soon began to stamp his authority by adding three more birdies on the front-nine including a 35-feet conversion on the third. Azhar, ranked 23rd in the PGTI Order of Merit, picked up four more birdies on the back-nine including a tap-in and an 18-feet conversion.
“I hit it close to the flags all day. Here at the Poona Club Golf Course, there is a premium on hitting fairways and I hit a lot of fairways today. On the back-nine, my chipping and putting was outstanding because I did not hit any greens from hole 14 onwards and just made a lot of quality chip-putts,” said Azhar.
Sofiane Diop got his fifth goal of the season for Nice. He opened the scoring with a beautiful curling shot after a cut-back pass from Jonathan Clauss, who turned from provider to scorer just before halftime. Other results Struggling Angers claimed a second win this season by defeating Lorient 2-0. Le Havre bounced back by winning 1-0 at Auxerre after getting thrashed 6-2 by Marseille last weekend.
