Randhawa in four-way lead at Hero Honda Open

Four of the best golfers on the Hero Honda Golf Tour are seated atop the leaderboard at the end of the opening round in the Rs One million Hero Honda Open South 2002.

Jyoti Randhawa, Vijay Kumar, Gaurav Ghei and Indrajit Bhalotia overcame the lightning-fast KGA greens to return two-under 70 apiece.

Local hero Rahul Ganapathy, was tied for the fifth spot at one-under 71 with Delhi's Ashok Kumar, Bangalore's C Muniyappa and Ranjit Singh.

It was a commendable performance from Jyoti Randhawa, who is recovering from a shoulder injury.

"I am happy that I am hitting the ball well. It takes time to get back into full shape. Today I felt really good but was unhappy with my putting, especially on the back nine,'' said the 30-year-old pro who began with a birdie and bogeyed the second before firing birdies on the fifth and eighth holes.

Indrajit Bhalotia, who is playing his first event after the British Open qualifying rounds, also carded a score of two-under, firing birdies on the 4th, 5th and 9th before firing two others on the 11th and 14th. But for a bogey on the last hole, Indrajit could well have emerged as the leader.

Vijay Kumar, who had a third-finish here last year also made a good beginning.

"I had a fairly good round. This course has never looked better but the winds made it difficult to play my shots. I ended up with a bad round on the back nine," said the Indian Open winner, who had bogeys on the first and fifth holes.

After bogeying on the 13th, Vijay fired an eagle on the par-5 fourteenth hole to resurrect his position.

"You have to play good on all four days to win," added the Lucknow golfer.

The 2001-02 Order of Merit leader - Mukesh Kumar had a par score while Digvijay Singh, who won the Royal Springs Open last month, returned a disappointing three-over 75 to be placed at joint 35th.

Meanwhile, David D'Souza carded the top score amongst the amateurs with a score of 78.

Scores (after 18 holes):
Pros: 70 Indrajit Bhalotia, Jyoti Randhawa, Gaurav Ghei, Vijay Kumar; 71 Rahul Ganapathy, C Muniyappa, Ashok Kumar, Ranjit Singh; 72 Basad Ali, DS Raghuvanshi, Minky P Barbora, Monish Bindra, Mukesh Kumar, Shiv Prakash, Yusuf Ali.

Amateurs: 78 David D Souza; 81 Arjun Ramesh, Prem Bhatia, 82 Rohan Puri