Bengaluru, Sep 10 (IANS): Hyderabad's 5-handicapper Shashidhar Reddy, who won the World Corporate Golf Challenge in Portugal in July this year, triumphed in 0-5 handicap category by carding 36 Stableford points on the opening day of the seventh Toyota Karnataka Golf Festival here on Thursday.

"In South India, the Festival is the grandest amateur golf tournament and it feels great to perform on such a big platform. It seems my journey from Hyderabad was worth it and winning here today was the icing on the cake," said Shashidhar.

Over 500 golfers are taking part in the competition to book a spot in five different handicap categories (0-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, 21-24) for the World Amateur Golfers Championship to be held in Turkey from November 28 to December 5.

Shashidhar, with a handicap of minus 6, scored 41 points to win in 6-10 category while Digbloy Haider (-11) became victorious in 11-15 handicap category with 38 points.

The winners of 16-20 and 21-24 handicap categories were V.S. Thyagrajan (36 points) and Siva Reddy (37 points), respectively.

While every winner in each of the five categories walked away with a trophy and a silver plated salver, the winning team of Siva Reddy and Sridhar Reddy who put together a joint score of 78 points, won a couple of vouchers each for a stay of three nights and four days at a resort in Bandipur sanctuary.

The next three days of the festival will see a different field of around 128 players teeing off each day from all across India.

Earlier, former cricketers Syed Kirmani and Sujith Somasunder, former India hockey player Ashish Ballal and TV host and cricket commentator Charu Sharma teed off to set the ball rolling.