Golfer Bhullar holds joint lead at Macau Open

Macau, Oct 19 (IANS) Indian golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar carded a flawless seven-under 64 to share the opening-round lead with South Koreans Yikeun Chang and Giwhan Kim at the Macau Open here on Thursday.

Bhullar, a former winner of the tournament in 2012, posted seven birdies while Kim was equally impressive at the Macau Golf and Country Club.

"It was a good round overall. I hit the ball really good. I just kept on giving myself birdie opportunities and the game went accordingly to my plan. The putter went a bit cold on my back nine. I didn't hole any birdie putts coming in but I gave myself a lot of good looks," Bhullar said in an Asian Tour release.

Another in-form Indian player, Ajeetesh Sandhu, signalled his strong intentions of winning a third straight title when he signed for a 66 to trail by two shots in fourth place with Thailand's Danthai Boonma at the $500,000 Asian Tour event.

Chinese Taipei's Hung Chien-yao, Filipino ace Angelo Que and Wolmer Murillo of Venezuela, who just won his maiden Asian Development Tour (ADT) title last week, are three shots off the pace in tied-sixth position.

Defending champion Pavit Tangkamolprasert of Thailand battled to a 72 to tie in 47th place while reigning Order of Merit champion Scott Hend of Australia came in a further shot back in tied-65th position at the Macau Open, which is celebrating its 19th edition this week.

India's S. Chikka and Shubhankar Sharma were tied at the 13th spot with a 69 apiece.

Chiragh Kumar, Rashid Khan, Jyoti Randhawa and Khalin Joshi scored 70 each to be tied at the 25th position.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)