Chikkarangappa in lead as Harendra slips to 2nd spot

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 17

Chandigarh’s Harendra Gupta slipped a place to tied 2nd after he shot a 2-under 70 in the second round for a two-day total of 8-under-136 in the Delhi-NCR Open Golf Championship at the Golden Greens Golf Club in Gurugram today.

Defending champion Chikkarangappa S of Bengaluru carded a sublime 7-under 65, the day’s joint best score, to emerge as halfway leader.

Gurugram’s Tapy Ghai (69-67) shared the second spot with Gupta at the Rs 30-lakh event. The cut was declared at 1-over-145.

Chikkarangappa (70-65), lying overnight tied 12th and four off the lead, began the day with a flurry of birdies on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd holes, the latter two being conversions from 12 to 15 feet.

He recovered well after his bogey on the 4th with two more birdies on the 8th and 9th.

Ghai (69-67), who was tied-8th and three off the lead after first round, had nine birdies and four bogeys to show in his round of 67 today.

Gupta (66-70), the Round 1 joint leader, returned a 70 that featured three birdies and a bogey. He made some gains towards the end after making pars on his first 13 holes.

Another Chandigarh golfer, Ajeetesh Sandhu, the first round joint leader, slipped to tied 4th at 6-under 138 after a round of 72.

Bengaluru’s Khalin Joshi, who also struck the day’s joint best score of 65, was bunched in tied-4th along with Sandhu, Pune’s Udayan Mane (67), Patna-based Aman Raj (66) and Gaurav Pratap Singh (68) of Noida.

Delhi’s Honey Baisoya, who was a part of the three-way lead on Day 1, shot a 74 to drop to tied-12th at 4-under 140.

PGTI Order of Merit leader and Chandigarh golfer Karandeep Kochhar (69) was also in tied 12th position. Rashid Khan (74) was a shot further behind in tied-17th place.