Al Hamra Golf Course: Shiv Kapur, who has made the UAE his home away from home, displayed home advantage to the fullest in the opening event of the second half of the IGPL Invitational 2026, shooting a superb 62 on the opening day.
Shiv Kapur, a multiple winner on the Asian Tour, who now lives in Dubai, equalled the course at Al Hamra GC by shooting an error-free 10-under 62 in the opening round of the IGPL Invitational 2026.
Kapur, who represents RVR Delhi Blue Bulls, is just back from a boot camp with a trainer a few days ago. It was to get fit ahead of the second half of the IGPL season, and it showed in a round that was bogey-free and also had a hole-in-one on the Par-3 15th, besides eight birdies.
Kapur was four shots clear of the field and was trailed by debutants Ravi Kumar, UAE’s Joshua Grenville-Wood, Varun Parikh (Flying Man, Kolkata) and Varun Chopra (Auro Realty, Goa). They all shot 6-under 66 each.
Shaurya Binu (67) was sole sixth, while three players, Tushar Pannu, Raghav Chugh, and Sukhman Singh, were tied seventh with scores of 4-under 68 each.
The prolific Gaganjeet Bhullar, who has four IGPL wins to his name, had a bunch of bogeys on the back nine; he was tied 10th alongside another IGPL debutant, Arjun Prasad, teen star Veer Ganapathy, and Samarth Dwivedi.
Starting from the first alongside Bhullar, Sachin Baisoya (72), Kapur was off to a birdie start. He then hit a purple patch with four birdies in a row from the third to the sixth. After taking a breather with a par on the seventh, he birdied the eighth, parred the ninth to turn in 6-under 30.
He kept the momentum going in the middle of the back nine, when he birdied the 13th, the 14th, and aced the Par-3 15th with a 5-wood. He parred the last three holes for a round of 62.
An elated Kapur said, “The round was pretty solid. I think no real mistakes, very solid from tee to green, holed all the putts that I needed to. Obviously, the icing on the cake was when I had a perfect 5-iron on the 15th hole, (which) landed just right of the flag and rolled in perfectly. At that stage, I was already 8 under par from my tournament, and got to 10 under. I think the driving was good, the iron play was good, the short game was sharp. So it was just one of those days where everything clicked quite well.”
On his preparation for the second half of the IGPL season, he added, “I've done quite a lot of work in the off-season on my game, on my fitness, on my diet, my lifestyle, a lot of things just to re-energise myself, get myself ready for this challenge over the next few weeks ahead. So nice to get off to a good start.
"Obviously, long way to go in the tournament, but always a good start this way; hopefully I can carry on, keep the momentum going. I have shot 62 before; I've shot 60 at the Els Club, but in an official IGPL event, an official tournament 10-under is my best. I have shot 9-under a few times, which was 62, but this is a 10-under 62, which tied the course record here. So, I would say, this is probably one of my career best rounds. But still there is a lot of golf to be played,” he added.
On his preparation for the second half of the IGPL season, he added, “I've done quite a lot of work in the off-season on my game, on my fitness, on my diet, my lifestyle, a lot of things just to re-energise myself, get myself ready for this challenge over the next few weeks ahead. So nice to get off to a good start.
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Ravi Kumar had seven birdies and one bogey, while Varun Parikh had six birdies in a bogey-free round; Varun Chopra had a sensational finish. Starting on the sixth, he was 1-under through 13 holes with four birdies, one bogey, and a double bogey. He closed with five birdies in a row from the first to the fifth to rise to 6-under, tied second, but four behind the leader, Kapur.