Jamshedpur: Kolkata lad Udayjit Bhalotia laid down the marker for the rest of the field with a steady one-over par 72 and take a three stroke lead on a warm and sunny day 1 of the Tata Steel All India Sub Junior & Feeder Tour Final 2014 being played here at Par – 71 Golmuri Golf Club.

Rohit Kumar Bouri of Jamshedpur was placed second three strokes behind at four-over par 75 with the trio of Jay Pandya, Rohan Rajware and Bala Mitran placed tied third a further stroke behind at five-over 76. Bishwam Ghosh, Prateek Malik and Mahipat Singh are all placed tied sixth, five strokes behind the leader at six-over 77.

Udayjit, who started first from the 1st tee, began with a par but dropped a stroke on the Par 4 2nd hole. A hat trick of pars followed by a birdie 3 on the 348 yard 6th hole had him back at even par for the day. He saved par on the 7th hole before he missed a clutch putt for par on the 9th hole to go out at one over par. Three consecutive pars followed before a birdie on the short par 4 13th hole brought him down to even par. However, a loss of concentration on the 14thhole saw him drop a stroke and despite back to back pars on the 15th and 16th holes, he couldn’t shake off the disappointment. In the process he dropped another stroke on the 17thbefore rolling in a birdie 4 on the final hole to finish at one-over par at the end of Round 1.

Local lad Rohit got into the scheme of things right away as he birdied two of the first three holes. But three bogeys on the trot took him out of red digits and was at one-over par at the turn. His only birdie on the back nine came on the Par 5 11th hole as he hit bogeys on the each of 12th, 14th, 17th and the 18th holes.

Prateek Malik who carded a six-over par 77 with a single birdie, five bogeys and a double bogey 7 on the 11th hole leads Category B. He is followed by the duo of Chinmaya Mahajan and Kaustubh Mishra one stroke behind in second place. A further stroke behind at eight-over par 79 is Rajvir Randhawa followed by Jay Vora in fifth place at nine-over par 80.

Winner of the Tata Steel Jharkhand Juniors Challenge here, Udayjit said, “I played a good, consistent round today but my putting let me down a little bit.” He added, “I’m looking forward to playing an under par round tomorrow to maintain my lead.”

Top Scores (after 18 holes):

Category A & B (Combined):

72 Udayjit Bhalotia; 75 Rohit Kumar Bouri; 76 Jay Pandya, Rohan Rajware, Bala Mitran; 77Bishwam Ghosh, Prateek Malik, Mahipat Singh; 78 Chinmaya Mahajan, Mayank Thakur, Kaustubh Mishra; 79 Anmol Handa, K Pawan Kalyan, Rajvir Randhawa; 80 Sharif Khan, Jay Vora

Category B:
77 Prateek Malik; 78 Chinmaya Mahajan, Kaustubh Mishra; 79 Rajvir Randhawa; 80 Jay Vora; 81 Hardik Chawda; 82 Aaryomaan Bose, Aryan Agarwal