Port Louis (Mauritius), Apr 9 (PTI) Teen sensation Veer Ganapathy, who recently turned 18, on Thursday nailed two birdies in the last three holes to card 5-under 67 and rise to the top of the leaderboard in the first round of the AM Green IGPL Invitational 2026 Mauritius golf tournament hosted by Leander Paes. Sachin Baisoya, who was consistent throughout 2025 with multiple Top-3 finishes but no wins, produced a brilliant finish after a rather sedate start. He closed with three birdies in a bogey-free round of 67 to join Ganapathy for a share of the lead.
Baisoya also helped his team Phoenix Hyderabad go ahead in the team competition.
Lying in tied third place were Amandeep Drall (69), Milind Soni (69) and Ridhima Dilawari (69).
Amandeep Drall,
a former runner-up at the Hero Women’s Indian Open on the Ladies European Tour, and Ridhima are trying to emulate Pranavi Urs, who last year became the woman to win an AM Green IGPL event. Pranavi won the Mumbai event last year.
Olympian Udayan Mane and experienced Shiv Kapur were tied sixth with rounds of 2-under 70 each, while Aryan Roopa Anand, Varun Chopra, rookie Sukhman Singh and Yashas Chandra were tied eighth with cards of 71 each.
Among the notable names, the 2025 AM Green IGPL Order of Merit topper Pukhraj Singh Gill (72) was T-12, while Gaganjeet Bhullar, winner of the AM Green IGPL Invitational 2026 Chandigarh 2026, Karandeep Kochhar, SSP Chawrasia and Aman Raj were T-15 with 1-over 71 each.
In team standings, Phoenix Hyderabad spearheaded by co-leader Baisoya (5-under 67) and Raghav Chugh (even par 72) were leading at 5-under, while RVR Delhi with Shiv Kapur (2-under 70) and Aryan Roopa Anand (1-under 71) were second at 3-under.
Green Fuels Vizag with Milind Soni (3-under 69) and M Dharma (1-over 73) were third at 2-under total. The two best scores from each of the four member teams count towards the competition.
The tournament is the second in the AM Green IGPL season 2 which will have 15 events, ten of which will be in India and five outside India. PTI PDS SSC SSC
