Friday October 5, 2012
George scores an ace for two-shot lead at the Sarawak Masters
PETALING JAYA: Indonesia’s George Gandranata scored a hole-in-one en route to grabbing the first-round lead at the PGM Sarawak Masters in Kuching.
George shot a four-under 68 for a two-shot lead over local hope Akhmal Tarmizee and James Lam of the Philippines at the RM180,000 Asian Development Tour (ADT) event.
Malaysians Airil Rizman, Jeremiah Kim, Kenneth De Silva and Mohd Hafiy were a further shot back in fourth place with Singaporean Choo Tze Huang, Japan’s Go Nakauchi, Australian Michael Moore and Filipino Charles Hong.
Starting from the 10th tee, Gandranata aced the 188-yard par-three eighth hole at the Sarawak Golf Club with a five-iron for his sixth career hole-in-one.
“I’m happy with my score because the greens are challenging. It’s funny because five of my aces have come on the eighth hole! Must be my lucky number,” said the 26-year-old, who traded four birdies against two bogeys.
George, who graduated with a Masters in economics from the University of Berkeley in California, is delighted with his strong start in his eighth ADT appearance.
“This is my first year as a professional golfer and I need to gain a lot of experience. I think the ADT is a good stepping stone for that because you want to be playing under pressure and playing for money,” said the Indonesian, who is 33rd in the ADT Order of Merit.
Leading first round scores
(Malaysian unless stated)
68: George Gandranata (Ina);
70: Akhmal Tarmizee, James Lam (Phi);
71: Choo Tze Huang (Sin), Kenneth De Silva, Go Nakauchi (Jpn), Michael Moore (Aus), Jeremiah Kim, Airil Rizman Zahari, Mohd Hafiy, Charles Hong (Phi);
72: Mohd Iylia Jamil, Sukree Othman, S. Siva Chandran, Mitsuhiko Hashizume (Jpn).
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