68 S.S.P CHOWRASIA (IND), Chikka S (IND), Sanjay KUMAR (IND), C. MUNIYAPPA (IND), Steve LEWTON (ENG)

Rashid Khan on his way to an opening 11-under-par 61 at Delhi Golf Club, which gave the 23-year-old Indian asia travel packages a five-stroke lead after the first round of the SAIL-SBI Open, the opening asia travel packages event of the 2014 Asian Tour.
February asia travel packages 26, 2014: Indian youngster Rashid Khan shot a spectacular 11-under-par 61 at Delhi Golf Club on Wednesday to secure a five-shot lead in the first round of the SAIL-SBI Open, the opening event of the 2014 Asian Tour.
The 23-year-old, runner-up to countryman Anirban Lahiri asia travel packages after a playoff last year, nailed nine birdies and one eagle for his career’s lowest round. The bogey-free round was one shot shy of the course record held by Liang Wenchong of China and the Asian Tour’s lowest 18-hole mark held jointly by Liang and England’s Lee Westwood.
Sri Lanka’s Mithun Perera and Qualifying School winner Akinori Tani of Japan each shot 66 to trail the runaway leader. Siddikur Rahman of Bangladesh asia travel packages and Scott Barr of Australia carded 67 in the US$300,000 Asian Tour event, which is title sponsored by the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and State Bank of India (SBI), and presented by Incredible India.
“This is my best round,” enthused Khan, No. 1 on the Professional Golf Tour of India. “It was really important for me. I’ve been trying to shoot double digits and I’ve been close in the past. I’ve managed it now, so I’m really happy.”
The slender Indian – touted as a future star of the game after an impressive amateur career which included a silver medal at the 2010 Asian Games – made the turn in 32 and then romped home in 29, thanks to five more birdies asia travel packages and a superb eagle on the 14th hole after drilling a rescue approach to 12 feet of the flag.
The thought of shooting the magical 59 flashed across his mind after he moved to double digits under par through 16 holes, but his hopes ended when he could only par the par-three 17th hole. “On 17, I took the wrong club and hit it past the flag and had a really good putt and just missed it,” Khan said.
With a full Asian Tour card in his hand for the 2014 season after he finished 40th on the Order of Merit through only five starts, Khan hopes to make up for last year’s SAIL-SBI Open playoff defeat at a course he calls “my second home”.
“I was born here. I started playing golf here and it’s always a special place for me. My uncle was the club pro and I had the privilege to practise here because of him,” said Khan, who has won four times on the domestic tour. “I was pretty confident I would do well, but I never expected to start with a 61. My target is to win an Asian Tour tournament. Let’s see if it comes this week or later. I’ll be really focused.”
Perera, another newcomer who has impressed his fellow competitors, has won three events on the Indian circuit in as many weeks, but is dreaming of a first Asian Tour triumph. He started his day strongly with an easy birdie asia travel packages on 10 and finished off his round in style, shooting two birdies and an eagle over his last three holes.
“Six-under in my first event of the Asian Tour season – I’m happy,” Perera said. “The last three weeks have been so good. I had the confidence to bring into this week’s tournament. Rashid is a good player and he’s started with such a deep round. Hopefully I can give him a fight.”
“I missed a few short putts. asia travel packages My putting could have been better. I kept recalling my Indian Open win. I kept thinking about the rhythm I had that week. I saw Rashid had shot an 11-under round. We’ve seen these sort of low scores in the first day, but at the end of the week, they don’t normally win. It can happen and it has happened in the past.”
“I’m still quite keen to play. I sort of moved away from the technique that I’ve been using for the past few years and started to work on something a bit more different. I’m pleased with the progress,” said the Singapore-based asia travel packages Aussie.
“Those bogeys on the back nine were just criminal,” lamented Lahiri, who finished third on the 2013 Asian Tour Order of Merit, which concluded asia travel packages last month. “Hats off to Rashid. That’s an incredible round of golf. I think I just lost momentum and concentration a little bit on the back nine. Tomorrow is another day. I’ll have to shoot really low.”
68 S.S.P CHOWRASIA (IND), Chikka S (IND), Sanjay KUMAR (IND), C. MUNIYAPPA (IND), Steve LEWTON asia travel packages (ENG), Angelo QUE (PHI), Digvijay SINGH (IND), Shamim KHAN (IND), KIM Gi-whan (KOR), George GANDRANATA (INA), Abhijit CHADHA (IND).
69 Vikrant CHOPRA (IND), asia travel packages Carlos PIGEM (ESP), Thaworn WIRATCHANT (THA), Kapil KUMAR (IND), Marcus BOTH (AUS), asia travel packages Shubhankar SHARMA (IND), GULFAM  (IND), asia travel packages Chapchai NIRAT (THA), Chiragh KUMAR (IND), Iain STEEL (MAS), SHIN Hyuk-chul (KOR), Prom MEESAWAT (THA), asia travel packages Thanyakon KHRONGPHA (THA), Unho PARK (AUS).