Malacca (Malaysia), May 20: Abhijit Chadha shot a three-under 69 to lie tied at third place at the end of the first round of the 109th Malaysian Amateur Championships on Thursday, May 19.

19-year-old Chadha, who in Mar won the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final, was four shots off the leader Chieh-Po Lee (65) of Chinese Taipei at the A'famosa Golf Resort, while second place was occupied by Jobim Carlos on a day when play was delayed by the threat of lightning.

India was tied fifth in the team event. While Chadha shot 69, Khalin Joshi carded a 75 to give the Indian duo a total of 144.

The Chinese Taipei pair of Chieh-Po and Wei-Hou Liu were at 140.Thailand (141), Australia and Philippines (143) were all ahead of the Indians, who are tied at fifth along with Singapore.

Chadha had a bogey on the third, but he quickly made up with birdies on fourth and eighth to turn in one-under 35. On the back nine, he birdied the 13th and 14th to finish in 69 on the day.

71-year-old Angad Cheema is tied sixth. But other Indians in Amanjyot Singh and Gagan Verma are way down in the event, where a total of 96 players from more than a dozen countries are taking part.

Leader Chieh-Po had birdies at the third and fifth holes before shooting an eagle three at the 507-metre, par-five, seventh hole to make the turn on four-under-par 32. He went on to make five more birdies at holes 10, 11, 12, 16 and 17 against two bogeys.

The women's competition will begin from Friday, May 20.

PTI