November 4: Sweden’s Calle Strandberg, a regular on the Nordic Golf League, put himself in pole position with a bogey-free opening round of six-under par 66 in the opening round of the US$125,000 Egypt Golf Series – Read Sea Open.

At Sokhna Golf Club, Strandberg started his campaign with a round that contained four birdies and an eagle on the par-five eighth hole to open a one-shot advantage over Thammasack Bouahom of Laos. Thammasack also enjoyed a bogey-free outing with five birdies.

India’s Karandeep Kochhar closed his round with a hole-in-one on the ninth hole to finish on four-under 68 and tied third place, where he was joined by Korea’s Minhyeok Yang, the Italian duo of Andrea Saracino and Luca Galliano, England’s Matt Killen, Russia’s Egor Eroshenko and Thailand’s Weerawish Narkprachar.

Adam Elshamy, the 22-year-old amateur from Egypt, was the best-placed among local players, coming in with a bogey-free 69 to finish on tied 10th place.

Karandeep Kochhar of India. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

“That’s a good round. Everything was solid. Didn’t have any mistakes after hitting almost every green. Think I just missed two,” said Strandberg, who has several top-10 finishes in the NGL, but his best finish on the Asian Development Tour is a tied 11th place at the 2023 Saudi Aramco Invitational.

“The driver felt a bit off, but putting was pretty solid even though the greens were a bit slow. But overall, it was a very solid round.”

The eagle on the eighth hole came after he decided to tee off with a three-wood to stay short of the fairway bunker, and then smashed a four-iron to 15 feet and made the putt.

“The eagle was nice, but so was the birdie on the 18th, where I hit my second shot to like three feet. It’s always nice to finish a good round with a birdie,” Strandberg added.

Thammasack said it was a stress-free 67 despite making two three-putt pars.

Matt Killen of England. Picture by Vachira Kalong/Asian Tour

“Strength today was tee to green. Hit 16 greens today, so it wasn’t too stressful. But putting today was quite average. There were a couple of three putts, but we’re not going to let that get in the way of a good round,” said the Laos player, who is currently 86th in the ADT Order of Merit and needs a strong finish to the season.

“So, you have just got to accept that sometimes you hit a good putt and it just won’t go in. But I hit it solid tee-to-green and hit it close on a lot of holes.”

Elshamy, who shot rounds of 77 and 70 in last week’s Egyptian Open, continued to move in the right direction with a 69, which included birdies on the 13th, 17th and 18th holes.

“It’s always a good day when you have a clean scorecard,” said the 22-year-old who is playing on a professional tour for only the second time.

“I knew I wasn’t hitting the ball very well, so I planned accordingly. My short game was incredible. Made a few good up and downs and kept the momentum going.

“It’s a reflection of the state of Egyptian golf that it has drawn attention from a renowned tour like the ADT. This is so good for our players. I look forward to the tournaments to come in the coming years, many more years. The players are very happy.”

Just a couple of days ago, Kochhar told his fiancée Pranavi Urs, who plays on the Ladies European Tour, that he felt like a hole-in-one was coming.

“I think I manifested it. It’s my third hole-in-one, but this feels special because it’s the first time I have made one in tournament play. Always great to finish a round that way,” said Kochhar, who hit a six-iron from 194 yards for the ace.

The US$125,000 Egypt Golf Series – Red Sea Open is the second successive week the Asian Development Tour is in Egypt after last week’s Egyptian Open.