Ludhiana, March 25 (IANS) The young Chandigarh trio of twin brothers Bishmadpal Singh and Brashwarpal Singh as well as Manjot Singh shot scores of five-under 66 to take the joint lead at the end of the opening round of the PGTI NexGen’s Phillaur Open presented by R S Gill being played at the Ranjitgarh Golf Club in Phillaur, Punjab.

Delhi’s Wasim Khan and Panchkula’s Abhishek Kumar were placed tied for fourth at scores of four-under 67.

The 22-year-old fraternal twins Bishmadpal Singh and Brashwarpal Singh made their way to the top of the pack on Tuesday with the former producing six birdies and a bogey and the latter delivering seven birdies and two bogeys. The 19-year-old Manjot Singh made six birdies and a bogey to join the brothers at the top.

Bishmadpal, still recovering from a wrist injury he suffered late last season, made birdies on four out of the five par-5s and got himself out of trouble once from the hazard and once from the trees with a couple of outstanding second shots.

Bishmadpal said, “My planning and execution were perfect today as I attacked only where I felt I had a great chance to score. I played well in the Q School last month to earn my ‘A’ card on the PGTI, which gave me a lot of confidence at the start of the year.”

Brashwarpal hit it close throughout the day as he left himself birdie tap-ins on three occasions. He also sank a 20-footer for birdie. “All parts of my game were sharp today, especially the iron shots, chipping and putting. I also worked a lot on the mental aspect of my game recently, which has helped me. I’m drawing confidence from my good performances in the second half of the 2024 PGTI season,” Brashwarpal said.

Phillaur’s Swatanter Kumar was tied for 20th as he struck a 71 on day one. Amit Kumar, the other Phillaur-based professional, carded a 74 to be placed tied 43rd.