The seasoned campaigner from Calcutta led the field with an excellent card of seven-under 65. Was he satisfied? Not at all. ``I should have finished 10-under,'' he said. ``My putting was bad.''

Actually, there was little wrong with his putting. He needed just 29 putts to complete the round with seven birdies and not a single bogey. But Feroz, always a hard taskmaster, was obviously referring to the three simple putts he missed on the 8th, 9th and 16th.

Feroz, who teed-off from the 10th, drove, chipped and putted effortlessly and birdied the 12th, 14th and 15th. On the outward journey, he notched up birdies on the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th. But the three putts that he missed irked him. In addition, Feroz missed an eagle on the on the par-4 12thwhen his pitching wedge from 80 yards hit the flag and rolled for a two-feet birdie putt.

Feroz, 4th in the prize money list of the Indian PGA tour, despite his impressive round, will have to be on his toes if he is to remain a contender for the Rs 1,16,620 first prize. For, as many as four players are just two strokes behind.

Finding their touch quickly, Ali Sher, Gaurav Ghei and Arjun Singh, all of Delhi, and Vijay Kumar of Lucknow, all returned cards of five-under 67. And also in hot pursuit was Yusuf Ali of Calcutta who had a four-under 68.

In fact, as many as 10 golfers broke par for the day and this, while speaking well of the form shown by the golfers so early in the season, was also a commentary on the course which came in for uniform praise from all the participants. The greens played true and the players took full advantage of the excellent pin positions.

Gaurav Ghei, who shot a splendid five-under 67 in the last round of the Wills Southern Open at Bangalore last week, continued his formwith a similar score on Thursday. He had six birdies, the best being the one he notched up on the difficult 422-yard par-four 18th, but dropped one stroke on the 3rd.

Arjun Singh, winner of the Wills Masters at Gurgaon last month, was another to display pleasing form. After a bad start which saw him bogey the 2nd, Arjun had a hat-trick of birdies on the 4th, 5th and 6th, and then added three more on the back nine -- 11th, 13th and 17th.

Defending champion Ali Sher, who started from the 10th tee, was in superb form initially. He was six-under after 13 holes but then he bogeyed the 5th and played the remaining four to par.

Last year's Mahindra Player of the Year, Vijay Kumar who has had an indifferent season so far, came out of his slump to finish joint second. He played level par on the front nine, but on the return, he was in blistering form firing five birdies to be in serious contention for the title.

Calcutta's Yusuf Ali was six-under after 16 but fell prey to the dreaded finishing holes of theCosmo course. With back-to-back bogeys on the 17th and 18th, he finished with a four-under 68.

Amidst all the good form shown by the pros, the feat of Sandeep Sayal did not go unnoticed. The promising 16-year-old, 11th standard student from St Michael's school, led the amateurs with a creditable card of two-under 70. Sandeep was four-under after 14, but dropped three strokes before finishing with a superb 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th. In all, he had seven birdies and five bogeys.

Leading Scores

Professionals: 65 Feroz Ali; 67 Arjun Singh, Ali Sher, Vijay Kumar, Gaurav Ghei; 68 Yusuf Ali; 70 Uttam Singh Mundy; 71 Sanjay Kumar, Jyoti Randhawa.

Amateurs: 70 Sandeep Sayal; 77 K V Balachander, S Radhakrishnan.