SHAH ALAM: Kenneth De Silva will have his golf "kakis" (mates) to thank if he goes all the way to win the Corolla Cross Cup this week.
On Tuesday, Kenneth putted superbly to set the early pace in the second leg of the Toyota Tour with an opening six-under 66 at the Glenmarie Golf and Country Club.
The 33-year-old, a two-time Tour winner but not since 2015, reeled off four successive birdies from the fourth hole to lead by one shot over Galven Green and Malcolm Ting.
Starting the day from the 10th tee, Kenneth had earlier mixed three birdies with a bogey to make the turn at two-under.
"I putt so well today. Just can't believe I did that because, in the past four months, I didn't practise that frequently," said Kenneth.
"I only started to play actively again and get things back on track recently after moving to Samarahan (in Sarawak). I was living in Penang before this but I hardly played golf because I had no 'kakis' to play with.
"It's different in Sarawak now. I have many friends playing golf there.
"I can't even recall when was the last time I was leading a tournament, probably before Covid-19.
"This has to be one of my best rounds in recent times, hopefully, I can maintain it until the final day."
Galven was delighted to have picked up where he left off following his triumph in the season-opening Tun Ahmad Sarji Trophy in February.
Galven, who is the younger brother of national No. 1 Gavin Green, impressed with an eagle, four birdies and one bogey to be in early contention to make it two victories on the trot.
"I hit it pretty good throughout the whole round right from the start, found fairways, hit decent amount of greens and made a few putts here and there," said Galven.
Veterans Ben Leong and Nicholas Fung ended the day two shots off the pace in joint fourth while Daeng Abdul Rahman Abdul Aziz, Paul San, Sukree Othman and Nor Heikal Hadi were all tied for sixth after carding matching 69s.
