Gaurav Ghei, returning to the Asian Tour for the first time since his win in Beijing last month, picked up from where he had left as he shot a flawless six-under studded in the opening round of the Macau Open golf tournament on Thursday.
Ghei, with his 65 at the Par-71 Macau Golf and Country Club, was one shot behind the unheralded sole leader and Asian Tour rookie Australian Leigh McKechnie, whose 64 gave him the lead.
There was lot of good cheer in the Indian camp as Arjun Singh, Digvijay Singh, Uttam Singh Mundy and Rahil Gangjee brought in four-under 67 each and were tied 13th on a good scoring day.
Long hitting youngsters Gaganjeet Bhullar and Sujjan Singh shot one-under 70 each to be tied 51st. Amrtinder Singh and SSP Chowrasia were one-over for tied 90 th place, Harmeet Kahlon and Gurbaaz Mann were two-over 73 in 103rd place, and Firoz Ali (74) was tied 114th as the cut looked like at one-under.
McKechnie was one clear of a bunch of five tied second at 65. The pack included Ghei, Malaysia's Iain Steel, former Macau Open champion Jason Knutzon of the United States, Lu Wen-teh of Chinese Taipei and American Anthony Kang.
Veteran Zhang Lianwei of China was among those two shots behind of the leader.
Ghei continued to ride on his recent good form as he charged into contention. He had two birdies and an eagle on his first stretch after starting from the tenth. He added two more birdies on the seventh and ninth, his closing hole of the day for a superb 65.
