CHENNAI, SEPT 1: Ali Sher set the standard like he did on Wednesday when he turned in a brilliant card of seven-under 65 which put him two shots clear of Gaurav Ghei (67) on the opening day of the Cosmo-Hindu Open golf tournament, here.Good scores were not uncommon on the day with no fewer than 12 players beat the course with sub-par scores.Behind the two leaders were Vijay Kumar, Rejwan Ali and Gast Ram, all on 69, while Devendra Patel, Amritinder Singh, Mukesh Kumar and Feroz Ali were tied on 70, followed by Shiv Prakash, Bhoop Singh and Sanjay Kumar, notching 71 apiece.On a day of sweltering heat and a light breeze, several players voiced criticism over the state of the greens, but it hardly reflected in their scores as Delhi's two-time Indian Open winner Ali Sher showed how the conditions could be mastered.In fact, Ali Sher nearly beat the course record of eight-under that he had set in '96 and which he had repeated in '97, but a bogey on the third and a missed four-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole spoilt that chance. He began with a birdie on the second and followed it up with seven more as he went three-under for the first nine and four-under on the return.Having started the event so well, Ali Sher fancied his chances of winning it, especially when he is chipping well, as per his own admission.Meanwhile, Ghei's confidence-building exercise received just the start it needed when he birdied the first three holes. But bogeys on the fifth and seventh weighed him down. On the way back, he managed just two birdies.But then, Ghei seemed more anxious to getting his confidence back, much less retaining the title.Given the oppressive conditions and far-from-perfect greens, Ghei did well enough to return a low score though he was to say: ``It was an okay round though my confidence is still low. A five-under is obviously a good score but I thought I could have done better.''Ghei's focus was also on getting his swing right as also a couple of other aspects of his game. ``I played in Kuala Lumpur last week in the Volvo Masters, basically to get my confidence back. I missed the cut in KL by a shot and so, here I am. Next week, I will be in Taiwan for an invitational event and then back home for a few tournaments which, hopefully, will put my game on the right track,'' he commented.In fact, the greens came for criticism. ``They were far from good,'' commented Ghei and his views were echoed by Lucknow's Vijay Kumar, ranked No 1 in the Order of Merit last season.Golf Captain Dilip Thomas concurred with the views and said: ``The heavy rains on Sunday caused all the damage which we noticed only when we cut the grass. The pin positions were fixed on the good side of the green. But yes, I agree that the greens were not up to the mark.''Top scores: Professionals: Ali Sher (65); Gaurav Ghei (67); Vijay Kumar, Rejwan Ali, Gast Ram (all 69); Devendra Patel, Amritinder Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Feroz Ali (70); Shiv Prakash, Bhoop Singh and Sanjay Kumar (71); Manohar Dike, Amit Dube, Vivek Bhandari, Akbar Ali (72).Amateurs: Iswar Achanta (74); Vivek V Raghavan (75); D Nagaraj, CV Yudhvir, Gaurav Sayal, B Gurunath (76).
