Shamim, Arjun take early lead at Kensville Open

The seasoned Shamim Khan and youngster Arjun Prasad returned with identical scores of six-under-66 in the opening round to take early lead at the third edition of the Kensville Open here on Thursday.

The 41-year-old Shamim and the 20-year-old Arjun established a one-shot advantage over Kolkata's Sunit Chowrasia (67) who was placed third after day one at the Rs 40 lakh event, being played at the Kensville Golf & Country Club.

After an opening hole birdie, Shamim got his round going with two 20-feet birdie conversions on the sixth and ninth. Shamim's much-improved putting display this week saw him pick up three more birdies from a range of seven to eight feet on the 12th, 14th and 15th.

Shamim, a 14-time winner on the PGTI, then pushed his tee shot to the right on the par-3 16th that resulted in his only bogey of the day. Khan finally sank his third 20-footer of the day for a birdie on the closing 18th.

Arjun Prasad, who finished a creditable tied 11th at the Asian Tour's Panasonic .