NEW DELHI: Thailand’s Chapchai Nirat began his bid to end a four-year title drought by grabbing a share of the lead with six-under-par 66 at the SAIL-SBI Open yesterday.
Armed with a hot putter, the 29-year-old Thai nailed eight birdies, as against two bogeys, at the par-72 Delhi Golf Club to jointly lead the Asian Tour event he famously won four years back with local rookie Khalin Joshi.
Nicknamed ‘King Kong’ for his big-hitting game, Chapchai set a Tour record for 72-hole total with his 32-under-par 256 victory in 2009 at a different course on the outskirts of Delhi. Seeking his fourth Asian Tour title, he displayed signs of the same ominous form in yesterday’s opening round.
“My putting was very good today,” he said. “I stuck to my new putting routine and didn’t take too much time over my putts. I feel confident for the rest of the week.”
Playing his maiden Asian Tour event as pro, 20-year-old Joshi missed what could have been his 10th birdie from 10 feet on his last hole to share the lead with Chapchai.
“I putted really well today. I’ve been hitting the ball well the past few weeks but the putter was hot today, made quite a few,” said Joshi.
“I’m going to approach the rest of the week like how I did today, just play within myself. This is the first week I am not playing with my driver. I’ll do that the whole week. Just keep the same attitude.”
Meanwhile, World number one Rory McIlroy acknowledged yesterday he was wrong to walk off mid-round at last week’s Honda Classic and said his toothache was not bad enough to justify quitting the tournament.
Facing the media for the first time since his controversial withdrawal at PGA National, McIlroy said it soon dawned on him that he had made the wrong decision.
“Obviously I’ve had a lot of time to think about it. I realised pretty quickly that it wasn’t the right thing to do,” he told a news conference ahead of today’s first round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship. “No matter how bad I was playing, I should have stayed out there. I should have tried to shoot the best score possible even though it probably wasn’t going to be good enough to make the cut,” he said, referring to his ill-fated second round where he played the first eight holes at seven over-par before quitting.
McIlroy initially told reporters on Friday as he was heading to his car that he was not in a “good place mentally” and then later a statement cited pain from his wisdom tooth. AGENCIES
