India’s Divyanshu Bajaj on Tuesday holed an ace en path to a advantageous seven-under 65 to lie one shot behind the chief, German Michael Hirmer after the opening spherical of the KGA Challenge, the second of the two-week Indian swing of the European Challenge.

It was not simply Bajaj, younger southpaw Kartik Sharma and Mari Muthu shot six-under 66 every to be positioned tied fifth as Aman Raj, who was within the Top-10 final week, and Khalin Joshi, enjoying in his house course, shot four-under 68.

The creation of two Challenge Tour occasions has created new alternatives for Indian golfers.

While Om Prakash Chouhan, who performed a shocking remaining spherical to win the Black Bull Challenge final week, now has a card on Challenge Tour, a win within the USD 300,000 occasion will go a good distance in contending for the PGTI Order of Merit, the winner of which will get a card to the principle DP World Tour.

Divyanshu, trying to find his maiden title, mentioned, “It’s been a long time since I shot such a low score. I was playing well and performing consistently on the PGTI till 2019 just before the onset of Covid. But thereafter I had some health issues due to which I struggled on the golf course.

“I’ve addressed the health problems with some changes in my lifestyle such as restrictions in my diet. These changes along with my self-belief have helped me get my game back on track.

“I had an excellent start today and the hole-in-one on the 13th was a huge confidence booster. After making bogey on the 14th, I came back really well. I was very stable from there on and kept the errors out of my game even though I missed a couple of birdie opportunities from 10 feet on the front-nine.” Another native Bengaluru golfer, C Muniyappa, Samarth Dwivedi and Varun Parikh of Gujarat carded three-under 71 every to be tied twenty eighth.

M Dharma, a powerful contender on the PGTI Tour, had India’s high novice Avani Prashanth on the bag, as he performed two-under 70.

Avani is enjoying the function of a caddie to see high professionals in a match state of affairs and study from it. She usually performs apply rounds with Dharma, Khalin Joshi and Chikkarangappa, who're all from Bengaluru.

Leader Hirmer, who's in search of a maiden professional win on the Challenge Tour, was T-18 final week.