Gaganjeet Bhullar shot a three-under 69 on Tuesday to share the first-round lead at the Green Fuels Maritime Invitational 2026 in Visakhapatnam. He tied Deepak Yadav, Ravi Kumar and Kanav Chauhan at the top of the board at East Point Golf Club.

The round was not built on a fast start. Bhullar began on the fourth hole and kept things steady with five successive pars. His first birdie came on the ninth, and four more pars followed before he changed gear.

From the 15th, he produced three consecutive birdies. His only dropped shot came on the 18th, his 15th hole of the day. Three closing pars got him home at 69, and the scorecard told the story of a player who stayed patient until the moment the course opened up for him.

A first visit, and no familiar lines to lean on

Bhullar had never played East Point and had never been to Visakhapatnam before this week. That made his opening score more striking. He did not have local knowledge or a memory of the greens to fall back on. He read the layout as he went and adapted to conditions that were very different from anything he had prepared for.

Experience still counted for plenty. The 11-time Asian Tour winner has a record of handling unfamiliar courses, and his round showed it. Rather than forcing birdies early, he waited on the par fives and par threes until the back nine gave him the chance to press.

Rain turned the course into a test of patience

Heavy rain over the preceding days left the course soft, and the wet weather meant practice was largely unavailable on Monday. Players had little chance to study the layout before the round started. Nobody came into the first day with a clear picture of how the ball would behave.

Organisers responded with preferred lies, which allowed players to lift and clean their balls on the fairways. With more rain possible, they also opted for a shotgun start, sending the field off from different holes at the same time. Bhullar began on the fourth, and the setup shaped how the day unfolded for every group on the course.

Those changes made scoring a test of composure as much as technique. A player who could stay steady through five pars in a row, then strike with three birdies in a short stretch, had a clear advantage. Bhullar did exactly that.

The chasing group kept the pressure on

Ravi Kumar, who joined the professional ranks on the AM Green IGPL earlier this season, also signed for a 69. He started on the sixth and picked up birdies on the seventh, 18th, first and fourth. His only dropped shot came at the par-three 16th. For a player still looking for his maiden AM Green IGPL victory, it was a round that announced him in the leading group.

Kanav Chauhan, the 2025 All India Junior champion who turned professional earlier this year, completed the leading trio with his own three-under 69. He turned in even par, recovered from a bogey on the 10th with a birdie on the 11th, and then rolled in three successive birdies from the 15th. He closed with a par. Like Kumar, he is still chasing his first AM Green IGPL win, and his finish marked a sharp run of his own.

Deepak Yadav relied on his earlier experience at East Point. His familiarity with the course mattered on a day when most of the field was learning it from scratch.

Why the Andhra Pradesh connection matters here

The tournament is being played in Visakhapatnam, an Andhra Pradesh city, so the first day of competition unfolded on home soil for the state’s golf community. The course, the conditions and the crowd all sit within Andhra Pradesh, and the stories coming out of East Point are part of the state’s growing sporting identity. Bhullar, Kumar, Chauhan and the rest of the leaderboard are playing in a city that is new to the most accomplished name at the top.

The chase behind the leaders

Experienced golfer Yashas Chandra sits fifth with a two-under 70. Nayanika Sanga, 22, was the leading woman in the field after opening with a one-under 71, which places her sixth overall. Her round is a reminder that the event is not only a men’s contest, and her position ranks her among the strongest scores of the day.

Olympian Udayan Mane had the most eventful round of the group he played in. He posted six birdies, four bogeys and a double bogey, and finished tied for seventh. Arjun Prasad and Harshjeet Sethie also shot even-par 72s and joined him at that position. Mane’s round shows how quickly a score can move when the course is this demanding.

Pukhraj Singh Gill, who is set to play on the Asian Tour in 2027, made a late recovery to finish with a one-over 73. He was tied for 10th alongside Sachin Baisoya and Tusshar Pannu. Gill’s finish was a fighting one after a difficult start, and it leaves him in contention for the rounds ahead.

A round that nearly did not happen

The players were lucky to finish their rounds at all. Mane was blunt about the conditions and the emotional toll they took before the first ball was struck.

“I think we’re just lucky to have gotten in a round today after so much rain over the last two days and before. I woke up thinking, we’re not going to play today, but to get in a full 18 holes without any rain was great. The course was very slushy, but all of us must adapt and find a way to put the ball in the hole,” he said.

That quote captures the mood of the field. Golf played in mud and standing water is a different sport, and the players who thrived on the first day were the ones who adjusted fastest.

What Bhullar is chasing

Bhullar’s opening round also kept him firmly on course for another back-to-back title on the AM Green IGPL Tour. He won the AM Green IGPL Krishna Invitational presented by Punjab Raptors, and he is a five-time AM Green IGPL winner. He is currently leading the individual standings in Season 2, which means every round here carries weight beyond this single event.

A first-round lead is only a start. But Bhullar showed a method that the rest of the field will have to answer: patience through a soft and unfamiliar course, followed by a burst of birdies when the back nine offered the opening. Whether he can repeat that pattern over the next rounds will decide whether this becomes another title for his growing collection.