The Black Mountain Masters commenced from 16 December at the Black Mountain Golf Club, Hua Hin and handed a 66 to Himmat Rai who had his hopes up in stepping into the top-61 for the Asian tour card.
The 23-year-old golfer thus carded a rather impressive score of 6 under in the initial round of the Masters and took one step forward for the 2011 Tour. According to the leader board conditions, the Indian golfer managed to earn a decent place of T 4 after
his score of 66.
Rai was standing with a one shot deficit from the leader Tetsuji Hiratsuka who carded a 65 in round one of the $ 600,000 Black Mountain Masters golfing event.
Rai’s scorecard managed to display a fine view as it contained birdies amounting to eight and bogeys with the numeral two. The scenario placed him in the top 5 cult easily and made the Indian stand behind the leaders Daisuke Maruyama , Angelo Que and Hiratsuka.
From the Indian line-up, SSP Chowrasia, Shiv Kapur and Anirban Lahiri were also able to enjoy a good day on the greens. As for Chowrasia, the winner of the Emaar-MGF Indian Masters carded a score with only a strokes difference from Rai and thus recorded
a 67. The golfer grabbed a place at the tenth place tied with a 5 under from round one.
Next in line was Kapur who unfortunately enjoyed only the beginning of the round along with Lahiri and failed to make the cut. The winner of the Volvo Masters from the year 2005 thus collected only a 73 from round one at the Black Mountain GC along with
Lahiri following his footsteps.
The cut was settled finally on at 1 under par where the previously mentioned golfers collected two strokes above the cut line. Lahiri and Kapur carded a one over to attain the 85th place at the leader board tied which made him step down the cut
dismally.
As for Rai, his start had also been a bit worrying when he staggered at the first flagstick. Nevertheless, the Indian charged in the fourth hole with his cool and collected birdies until the sixth thus marking a birdie hat-trick.
For Rai, the birdies attained transferred him deep down the 2 under cult with his remarkable putting abilities.
“It was an easy up and down for me at the 17th, I was hitting solidly,” Rai said.
Rai has collected 3 runner-up finishes from the Indian Tour in 2010 and a total of three top-20 finishes on the Asian Tour.
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