– On Thursday, 29 players finished under par at the Hero Indian Open. Today, Friday, with the first round of play completed, only six remain, and the clubhouse lead is at two under par. Throughout the morning, only four rounds have been delivered in red numbers. The hero has been the Italian Andrea Pavan, author of the only card below 70 strokes. The other three scored 71: Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Jens Dantorp, and Ewen Ferguson. The grinder is in motion.
– With the round finished, the leaders are Pavan, Matthew Jordan, Aphibarnrat, and Dantorp, all at -2. One stroke behind are Ferguson and Todd Clements. The cut has already gone to +4, although normally, unless the playing conditions change significantly, it is expected to end at +5 at least. Ángel Hidalgo already mentioned to TenGolf in the hours leading up to the tournament: “this is going to be a bloodbath”. It’s hard to bet on how many will finish the week under par. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. But at this time, not even the most optimistic believe it will reach ten.
– Pablo Larrazábal (+3) was one of those who came very close to signing one of the day’s feats. With three holes to go, the golfer from El Prat was three under par in his round, matching the best result presented by Pavan. However, we already know how the DLF Golf and Country Club operates. It’s always waiting with a hazel stick in hand. A bogey on the 7th and a double bogey on the 9th to finish ended up souring the taste of a round that was being excellent, with shots as good as the second on the 18th hole, where he achieved a great birdie bouncing very close to the flag. In just three holes, Pablo went from being fully in the battle for victory to watching from the sidelines, although we already say that this course can cause very significant changes in the leaderboard at any moment.
– Another good example of how this Indian DLF operates. Cameron John (+11) was quite far from making the cut. He was practically sentenced with a round of 83 strokes on Thursday. However, the Australian managed to deliver a par card today, making a bogey on the penultimate hole. Between one day and the next, there was an eleven-stroke difference, and seven of them occurred on a single hole. Yesterday, he made 10 strokes on the 8th hole, par 5, and today he achieved an eagle. Crazy.
– By the morning alone, there were already twelve rounds of 80 or more strokes recorded. One of the affected was the other Spaniard playing in the morning, Joel Moscatel.
