Rahil Gangjee Shoots 67, Lies Sixth in Mauritius Open

Rahil Gangjee birdied three of the last five holes to come in with four-under 67 and at tied sixth came out the best among Indians after Round 1 of the inaugural AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open here on Thursday.

Gangjee, who was one-under for the first 13 holes, birdied the fifth, seventh and eighth and ended with a 67. Gangjee, whose mother is Mauritian, gave himself a shot of winning in his mother's home land and a first title in 11 years following his lone Asian Tour triumph in 2004.

"We were battling out there. It wasn't easy, it was very, very windy and it started raining and it stopped raining and then it started raining again. It was more tiring than a normal day. I was feeling it towards the end but somehow it came together where I made a few putts," said Gangjee.

Gangjee was two shots behind the trio, Korean teenager Jeunghun Wang, Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen and Spaniard Carlos Pigem. The leaders shot six-under 65 each jointly establishing a new course record.

Wang has not missed the cut in his last 21 starts on the Asian Tour and Olesen is coming back from an injury.

Of the other Indians in the fray, Shiv Kapur carded even par 71 and was tied 46th, Gaganjeet Bhullar (72) was tied 63rd while Rashid Khan (73) and Arjun Atwal (73) were tied 84th.

Bhullar was three-under through nine and then hit a disastrous patch with bogeys on first and second and double bogeys on third and fourth. He finished with 73.

Olesen, who has been out for three months following a hand surgery, mixed eight birdies with two bogeys at the magnificent Heritage Golf Club in the morning before his effort was matched later in the day by Wang, who was bogey-free and Pigem.

The trio lead by a shot from South Africa's Oliver Bekker and Terry Pilkadaris of Australia in the 1 million Euros (approximately 1.1 million US Dollars) tournament, which is the first-ever to be tri-sanctioned by the Asian, European and Sunshine Tours.