Thai Itthipat and Madappa hit the front
Jakarta- India’s Viraj Madappa restored his self-belief and powered his way to the top of the leaderboard with his opening seven-under-par 65 to share the first round lead with Thailand’s Itthipat Buranatanyarat at the Bank BRI Indonesia Open on Thursday.
Madappa together with Itthipat, hold a one-shot advantage over Thailand’s Kosuke Hamamoto, Indonesian amateur, Naraajie Emerald Ramadhan Putra and India’s Ajeetesh Sandhu after the trio returned with matching 66s.
Madappa is searching for his second Asian Tour win after his breakthrough on home soil last year while Itthipat is coming into the week, fresh off a tied-sixth finish in Kuching a fortnight ago and seeking his maiden victory on the region’s premier Tour.
Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana, who was part of the Thai national golf team that finished fourth in the team event at last year’s Asian Games which was also held at the Pondok Indah Golf Course, continued to impress when he returned with a 67.
"It was a roller-coaster round for me and although I’m in the share of the lead, I feel I still need to work a lot on my short game as I feel that is my weakness today. Overall, my form is good but I just need to be more confident on the golf course. I tend to lose my focus and the key is to recover well after making bad shots. I did some of that today but hope to be more consistent in that aspect," said Itthipat.
Thai-Japanese Kosuke said: "I’m happy with my round and hopefully I can keep it going for the next three days. I played on this course a couple of times when I was still an amateur and was even here for the Asian Games last year. I finished seventh in the Men’s individual and the country finished fourth. The greens are firmer and the rough is not as thick as last year. I just have to keep playing good golf and the rest will take care of itself."
Sadom, who broke into prominence when he became the record fastest Qualifying School graduate to win on the Asian Tour in Bangladesh, is among the five players bunched in a share of sixth that also include compatriot Jazz Janewattananond and Indonesia’s Rory Hie at the US$500,000 full field Asian Tour event.
Playing for the first time in Asia, South Africa’s J.C Ritchie returned with a 69 to end the day in a share of 24th place, four shots of the pace.
Ranked 120th on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), Ritchie is the second highest-ranked player after Jazz (58th) and is playing on a sponsor’s invitation, which has been extended as part of the closer collaborations and reciprocal opportunities with the Sunshine Tour.
Leading scores after round 1 of the Bank BRI Indonesia Open 2019 being played at the par 72, 7243 Yards Pondok Indah GC course (am - denotes amateur):
65 - Viraj Madappa (IND), Itthipat Buranatanyarat (THA).
66 - Kosuke Hamamoto (THA), Naraajie E. Ramadhanputra (am, INA), Ajeetesh Sandhu (IND).
67 - Sadom Kaewkanjana (THA), Jazz Janewattananond (THA), Rory Hie (INA), Yikeun Chang (KOR), Daniel Van Tonder (RSA), Aman Raj (IND).
68 - Jake Higginbottom (AUS), George Gandranata (INA), Daniel Chopra (SWE), Shiv Kapur (IND), Naoki Sekito (JPN), Joshua Andrew Wirawan (INA), Philip Eriksson (SWE), Rashid Khan (IND), S. Chikkarangappa (IND), Johannes Veerman (USA), Jarin Todd (USA), Micah Lauren Shin (USA), Aaron Pike (AUS), Chanyoung Park (KOR).
