Golf

Emiliano Grillo opens up two-shot lead at Indian Open

Argentinian golfer equals course record with 65 at tough Delhi course

Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo plays his second shot on the 18th hole during day one of the Hero Indian Open at DLF Golf and Country Club in Delhi, India. Photograph: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images

Thu Mar 8 2018 - 15:49

Argentina's Emiliano Grillo beat the sunset to post a course-record equalling 65 and open up a two-shot lead on day one of the Hero Indian Open.

DLF Golf and Country Club is considered one of the most difficult courses on the European Tour and its severity meant that 24 players were unable to finish their opening rounds on Thursday.

The shadows were lengthening as Grillo completed his round but he made an eighth birdie of the day on the last to get to seven under and lead the way from Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal, Italian Matteo Manassero and American Paul Peterson.

The 25-year-old plays mainly in the United States, where he graduated from the Web.com Tour and won his first event as a PGA Tour member in 2015 at the Frys.com Open.

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He is playing on an invite this week in Delhi and admitted he had to be at his very best to equal the course record set by Malaysian Gavin Green last season.

“You have no idea how difficult the course is,” he told europeantour.com. “I had to play almost perfect golf to shoot a seven under.

“I think anywhere else it would have been close to a 59 or something. It was definitely a magnificent round of golf.

“I’m very happy with the way I handled myself out there. It was very tough and I was able to make some good putts and hit the fairways when I needed to.”

Grillo birdied the first and while he gave the shot back on the second, he never looked back after that, making further birdies on the fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 11th, 13th and last.

Larrazabal created one of the stories of the day as he was woken by a European Tour official just 38 minutes before his tee-time after his alarm did not go off, raced to the course and carded nine birdies to go with a double and two bogeys.

Frenchman Adrien Saddier and South Africa's Keith Horne were at five under with holes left to play, with Scot Marc Warren a shot further back and England's Matt Wallace at three under.

Darren Clarke closed with back-to-back birdies as he opened with a level-par 72 that left the Northern Irishman in a share of 37th position.

FIRST-ROUND SCORES

Play suspended due to darkness with 8 groups left to finish

(Britain and Ireland unless stated, par 72, (a) denotes amateur)

65 Emiliano Grillo (Arg)

67 Matteo Manassero (Ita), Paul Peterson (USA), Pablo Larrazabal (Esp)

68 Marc Warren, Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind)

69 Ricardo Gouveia (Por), Matt Wallace, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus), Shaun Norris (Rsa), Panuphol Pittayarat (Tha), Nicholas Fung (Mal), Sebastien Gros (Fra), Jeunghun Wang (Kor), Gavin Green (Mal)

70 Sihwan Kim (Kor), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Prayad Marksaeng (Tha), James Morrison

71 Shih-Chang Chan (Tpe), Joost Luiten (Ned), Matthias Schwab (Aut), Aaron Rai, Arjun Atwal (Ind), Jamie Donaldson, Wade Ormsby (Aus), Danthai Boonma (Tha), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Soomin Lee (Kor)

72 Andrew Johnston, Ashun Wu (Chn), Scott Jamieson, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Prom Meesawat (Tha), Jarin Todd (USA), Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa), Anirban Lahiri (Ind), Kurt Kitayama (USA), Khalin Joshi (Ind), Clement Sordet (Fra), Daniel Im (USA), Darren Clarke, Jin-ho Choi (Kor), Honey Baisoya (Ind), Stephen Gallacher, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)

73 Rattanon Wannasrichan (Tha), Scott Fernandez (Esp), Oliver Fisher, Jason Scrivener (Aus), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Phachara Khongwatmai (Tha), Robert Rock, Lionel Weber (Fra), Yi-Keun Chang (Kor), (a) Yashas Chandra (Ind), Gregory Havret (Fra), Marcus Fraser (Aus)

74 Steven Brown, SSP Chawrasia (Ind), Siddikur Rahman (Ban), Javier Colomo (Esp), Julien Guerrier (Fra), Hideto Tanihara (Jpn), Ashok Kumar (Ind), Jason Norris (Aus), Arnond Vongvanij (Tha), Anura Rohana (Sri), (a) Dhruv Sheoran (Ind)

75 Marcel Siem (Ger), Miguel Tabuena (Phi), Harendra Gupta (Ind), Nacho Elvira (Esp), Suradit Yongcharoenchai (Tha), Nino Bertasio (Ita)

76 Ben Leong (Mal), Marcus Kinhult (Swe), Lasse Jensen (Den), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Chiragh Kumar (Ind), Natipong Srithong (Tha), Andrew Dodt (Aus), Pavit Tangkamolprasert (Tha), Julian Suri (USA), Chien-Yao Hung (Twn), Ryan Evans, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind), Manu Gandas (Ind), Sean Crocker (USA), Scott Vincent (Zim)

77 Chris Wood, Renato Paratore (Ita), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), (a) Kartik Sharma (Ind), Chris Hanson, Rashid Khan (Ind), S Chikkarangappa (Ind), Poom Saksansin (Tha), Oliver Farr

78 Daniel Chopra (Swe), Tirawat Kaewsiribandit (Tha)

79 David Drysdale, Akshay Sharma (Ind), Jbe Kruger (Rsa), Vikrant Chopra (Ind), Graeme Storm

80 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Abhijit Singh Chadha (Ind), Mithun Perera (Aus), Om Prakash Chouhan (Ind), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha)

81 Syed Saqib Ahmed (Ind), Shamim Khan (Ind)

82 Scott Hend (Aus), Richard T Lee (Can), Gaurav Pratap Singh (Ind)

83 Sam Walker

86 M Dharma (Ind), Sanjeev Kumar (Ind)

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