Big-hitting Kiradech Aphibarnrat overcame a bad back to charge into the clubhouse lead at the Avantha Masters.
The Thai golfer carded a four under par 68 at the DLF Golf & Country Club in New Delhi to lie one ahead of Swede Oscar Floren, Scotland’s Scott Jamieson, Italian Andrea Pavan, Germany’s Marcel Siem, former World Number One amateur Peter Uihlein and home pair Vivek Bhandari and Anirban Lahiri.
“I’m pleased with how I started considering that I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and got a back pain,” said Aphibarnrat, who mixed six birdies with two bogeys.
“I aggravated it during the pro-am yesterday but managed to see the physio in time. Luckily, I’m feeling better now.
“I think I’ve got the chance to win more tournaments in India. We’ve many tournaments on the Asian Tour in India and I think that by having more playing opportunities here, we get more familiar with the conditions and we can improve.
“I’m playing my best golf and I hope this will continue throughout the season. I made some adjustments to my swing and they are more consistent now.”
Jamieson, who finished fifth last week in Dubai, led the tournament when he struck his approach to within three feet at the 13th to reach four under.
But he bogeyed the 16th after a poor chip at the par three and instead had to settle for a share of second as the 28 year old seeks a maiden European Tour title.
“It’s nice to be under par again,” he said. “I didn’t play very well at all, but scored quite well. It’s nice when you don’t play well to still be under par, so it’s a good start.
“If I play like I did last week I’d fancy I could do well here, but like I said, I didn’t play very well this morning and I’ll be putting in some practice this afternoon to try and find last week’s form.”
Siem has only one win from his 271 European Tour starts, but like Jamieson brought some good form into the week after finishing fourth last week.
“It’s only the first round but my goal is definitely to finish high up again,” said Siem. “I learned last week that it’s not that easy to win tournaments.
“Everything has to go your way and the putts have to go in the hole. I’m pretty confident that I could be up there, but you never know. I’ll do my best.”
