Vijay Kumar ahead by two strokes in Mewat golf

Mewat (Haryana), March 11 (IANS) Vijay Kumar of Lucknow carded a five-under 67 on the opening day of the Solaris Chemtech Open Golf Championship 2010 to establish a two stroke lead over  Kolkata golfers S.S.P. Chowrasia and Rafick Ali Mollah here Wednesday.

Vijay's bogey-free 67 was the highlight of round one at the serene Classic Golf Resort. The 41-year-old birdied the 15th and 18th holes courtesy of two excellent approach shots from 80 yards that landed within eight feet and five feet of the pins respectively.

The par three second saw the 2002 Indian Open champion sink a mammoth 25 feet putt for yet another birdie. He followed that up with another birdie on the very next hole where he came up with an outstanding chip that stopped a few inches from the hole.

The second shot on the seventh was the icing on the cake for Vijay since it left him with a two and a half feet putt for his last birdie of the day.

Vijay said: "I hit it close on most of the holes today and therefore earned as many as five birdies. I have been working on my hitting and my swing alignment of late and that seems to have paid off today.

"My body was getting a little stiff while hitting during recent events. But I managed to eliminate that problem today."

Chowrasia and Mollah were tied second with three under 69. While Chowrasia's round featured three birdies, Mollah made five birdies against two bogeys in round one.

Sujjan Singh, the winner at Panchkula last week, Arshpreet Thind from the Classic Golf Resort, Mohd Siddikur Rahman, Sanjay Kumar, Vivek Bhandari, R. Srinivas, Raj Randhawa and Rudresh Sharma were all in tied fourth place at two under 70.