Ajeetesh Sandhu stays ahead

Hyderabad: Despite tough competition from Gurgaon’s Shubhankar Sharma Chandigarh lad Ajeetesh Sandhu maintained his form and kept two-stroke lead on the second day at the Golconda Masters2016 at Hyderabad Golf Club(HGC) here on Friday. Ajeetesh and Shubhankar, the two pros ended the second round in first and second positions with totals of 12-under-130 and 10-under-132 respectively.

Ajeetesh, who had fired a phenomenal opening round of nine-under-62, a course record, kept his two-stroke lead for the second day running as he battled to a three-under-68, Shubhankar submitted a second successive five-under-66 to be hot on the leader’s heels on a relatively cooler and windier day at the HGC.

Ajeetesh (62-68) had a forgettable start on day two as he dropped three strokes on the first two holes. Having misjudged the wind he found the water on the first for a double-bogey and then had a lapse in concentration on the second green where he let a birdie opportunity slip away and instead landed up with a bogey.

The 27-year-old Sandhu then staged a valiant comeback with a magical run of six straight birdies from the sixth to the 11th. He pocketed strokes on the three par-5s on this stretch and also made tap-ins on a couple of par-3s thanks to some top-class tee shots. The former winner on the PGTI added another birdie to his card on the 14th before missing one of his shortest putts of the day for a bogey on the 18th.

Shubhankar (66-66), the winner last week in Bangalore, kept himself in contention for a second straight title as he climbed from overnight tied fourth to second place after punctuating his round with six birdies and a bogey. His longest putt of the day was a 15-footer for birdie on the 14th.

Rolex Ranking leader Feroz Ali Mollah (68-65) of Kolkata posted the day’s joint best score of six-under-65 to take a giant leap from overnight tied 11th to third place at nine-under-133. He achieved the rare feat of making two eagles during his round. Feroz, who won the season-opener two weeks back, holed his approach from 100 yards for an eagle-two on the 18th and then chipped-in for the other eagle on the eighth.

Teenager Manu Gandas of Gurgaon also fired the day’s joint best of 65 to move into a share of fourth place with Sri Lankan Anura Rohana and Kolkata’s Shankar Das at eight-under-134. Mhow’s Mukesh Kumar also came up with the day’s best score of 65 to be tied seventh at seven-under-135 along with Chandigarh’s Akshay Sharma and Bengalureans Khalin Joshi and R Murthy.