Hero Indian Open 2025: Armitage shares lead with Colsaerts, Kinhult; Ahlawat sits joint 10th after first round

It was a bit of an anticlimax after Marcus Armitage had threatened to emerge the sole leader, as he got undone on the 18th at the fag end of the day during the first round of the $2.25 million Hero Indian Open at the DLF Golf and Country Club on Thursday. The 38-year-old had to be content to be joint leader with Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium and Marcus Kinhult of Sweden with a four-under 68.

After pulling off a birdie on the tricky 17th, Armitage was 5-under, going into the par-5 18th. He managed to wriggle out of a tight situation as he took a chance to salvage his position, and putted nicely.

“When life is good, you have got to enjoy. I am very pleased,” said Armitage after winding up the day by getting a “tricky putt” right.

“I just kept patient because this golf course can wind you up, you can get frustrated pretty quick. I just dug in and am really pleased with it,” he added..

There was a lot of good news for the home fans, as Ajeetesh Sandhu shot three-under 69, with six birdies and three bogeys to be joint fourth with four others.

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“Everything was above average. I hit a lot of fairways and greens, and putted well”, said Ajeetesh, not overtly pleased with his work on the opening day.

Veer Ahlawat, the runner-up in the last edition, did remarkably well to shoot a two-under 70, to be in joint 10th spot with nine others.

Two-time champion SSP Chawrasia closed with a par 72, and so did Shiv Kapur, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Om Prakash Chouhan and Rayhan Thomas who were all tied on the 30th with 20 others.