Date: February 21, 2008
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Carolan shares lead in India

Australian Tony Carolan and Scotland&aposs Ross Bain share the lead in the inaugural SAIL Open after the duo fired first-round 66s at Jaypee Greens in Noida. Carolan recorded seven birdies but dropped a stroke at the 15th while Bain sank four birdies and an eagle at the par-five 12th in his six-under-par effort as low scoring proved relatively easy on a course featuring wide fairways and little rough. The pair are a shot ahead of a group of six players that includes local Indian favourite Jyoti Randhawa and Australians Scott Hend, Peter Cooke and Adam Groom, while a further six competitors are two shots off the pace. Despite leading the way, Bain felt he could have enjoyed an even more fruitful day. “It was a pretty solid round,” said the 32-year-old. “I did have some poor shots on the front nine but got away with it as there is not much rough.” “I felt I could go lower today but had a lipout on the 17th and left my putt hanging on the hole on the 18th.” Hend&aposs round of 67 included six birdies against a lone bogey. “It&aposs a nice challenging course, because you need to put the ball on the right side of the hole to have a good putt,” he said. “The greens are a little grainy and difficult to putt on. And I was playing the back nine for the first time.” “I hope to go out early and take advantage of the conditions tomorrow.” Randhawa, who began his round with an eagle two at the par-four first, was also left feeling he should have bettered his 67. “The highlight of the day came right at the start,” he said. “I drove to just about 10 feet short of the green and then decided to putt from there and it dropped.” “Things could have been better but I missed a few short ones of about four to five feet.” “When you feel a little disappointed after shooting a five-under, that says all about the course.” Scores after the first round of the SAIL Open, India -6: Ross Bain (Scotland) 66, Tony Carolan (Australia) 66 -5: Lam Chih Bing (Singapore) 67, Peter Cooke (Australia) 67, Dinesh Chand (Fiji) 67, Adam Groom (Australia) 67, Jyoti Randhawa (India) 67, Scott Hend (Australia) 67 -4: Will Yanagisawa (USA) 68, Dinesh Kumar (India) 68, Noh Seung-yul (Korea) 68, Wu Ashun (China) 68, Angelo Que (Philippines) 68, Danny Chia (Malaysia) 68 -3: Vinod Kumar (India) 69, Yasin Ali (England) 69, Zhang Lian-wei (China) 69, Ben Leong (Malaysia) 69, Mark Brown (New Zealand) 69, Wang Ter-Chang (Chinese Taipei) 69, Kim Young-jin (Korea) 69, Ali Sher (India) 69, Harinder Gupta (India) 69, Bae Sang-moon (Korea) 69, Gaurav Pratap Singh (India) 69 -2: Neven Basic (Australia) 70, Lloyd Saltman (Scotland) 70, Richard Gallichan (Australia) 70, Gaganjeet Bhullar (India) 70, Ashok Kumar (India) 70, Raj Randhawa (USA) 70, Karanjit Singh (India) 70, Taichiro Kiyota (Japan) 70, David Bransdon (Australia) 70, Kane Webber (Australia) 70, Kodai Ichihara (Japan) 70, Rhys Davies (Wales) 70