Maan, Gunasegaran joint leaders at Olympic Open
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesian Maan Nasim and Malaysian P. Gunasegaran shared the lead on the opening day of the Olympic Open golf tournament at the Cikarang Golf and Country Club in Bekasi, West Java on Tuesday.
The two carded two-under-par 70s to lead the 89-strong field. Chen Yuan Chi of Chinese Taipei finished the opening round one stroke behind the front-runners.
Ilyassak and Burhan Bora, both from Indonesia, followed behind with even par, each taking 37 strokes on the front nine and 35 on the back.
The tournament, which offers a record Rp 450 million (US$50,000) in cash prizes, was officially opened by Yapto Soerjosoemarno, the chairman of the Indonesian Professional Golf Association (PGPI).
The opening day was marred by a flurry of bogeys with many players falling to 90 strokes. This is because the 6,605 meter Cikarang course provides treacherous challenges, according to a media release here on Tuesday.
"It's crazy. The roughs are just tricky. As we're ready to tee off, we were already scared of running into the roughs," Agus Siahaan, an amateur from the Olympic Golf Club, said. He shot a nine-over-par 81.
The challenging fairway, compounded by the heat, also resulted in a poor performance by defending champion Stephen Atako Lindskog of Sweden.
Lindskog, who also won the inaugural competition in 1999, had to be content with a two-over-par 74. So did Malaysian V. Arumugam, with whom the Swede, who has been staying in Indonesian for almost six years, was grouped in the same flight.
Another favorite, Wang Ter Chang, who won in 2000, was tied in sixth place on 73 with Asep Capri Supriatna and Cho Min-am of South Korea.
Cho's performance took the other players by surprise given the fact the 18-year-old Korean is still an amateur golfer.
He made it to hole 14 on two-under before he suffered a sudden twist of performance on the last greens, stumbling to bogeys on hole 15, 16 and 18.
However, Maan and Gunasageran appeared able to overcome the hurdles.
Maan, who is considered the country's best pro golfer, started convincingly with a birdie. He made another on the seventh hole before conceding a bogey on the following green.
Entering the back nine, he registered an eagle on the par 4 hole number 12, but then he again got trapped in the next run to return to the clubhouse with two-under.