The buzz that normally surrounds the season-ending BILT Open was amiss, and for obvious reasons. The enthusiasts recalled the previous edition where the strongest-ever field in the PGTI flagship tournament culminated in Jyoti Randhawa pipping Jeev Milkha Singh by a shot.

All the while, they kept one eye on TV screens in the clubhouse, following closely the exploits of the top Indian pros who’ve skipped the Rs1 crore event for the $7million World Championship in Shanghai.

And perhaps what added to the nostalgia was the fact that, for the second year in a row, it was Anirban Lahiri’s name topping the leaderboard on Day One. On a benign course at the Jaypee Greens, the 22-year-old from Bangalore holed eight birdies in his six-under 66 to wrest early lead. As the day wore off, though, he had to share it with Vikrant Chopra, who carded a blemish-free round after having led his team to win at the pro-am event a day earlier.

Thursday was another example of Lahiri’s knack of scoring low numbers. He warmed up with three consecutive birdies on the first three holes, before “cooling off a bit”. After the turn, he turned on the heat again, hitting three more birdies in a row. The shot of the day came on the par-three 17th, where he salvaged a wayward tee shot, chipping from a greenside bunker to birdie from 35 yards.

Leaderboard: 66: A Lahiri, V Chopra; 67: A Sandhu, RN Datar; 68: Amardeep S Malik, Harendra Gupta, Himmat Rai, R Gangjee