By Rahul Banerji
Gurgaon’s Kartik Sharma held a share of fourth place after 36 holes at The Challenge in Bangalore, three shots behind Alex Fitzpatrick of England on Wednesday.
England’s Fitzpatrick shot a second straight seven-under 65 at the $300,000 event being played at the Karnataka Golf Association course, the PGTI said.
Fitzpatrick (65-65), overnight tied second one off the lead, took his total to 14-under 130 to lead by one shot at the event co-sanctioned by the Challenge Tour and PGTI.
Spain’s Ivan Cantero Gutierrez (66-65) was second on 13-under 131 while Dutchman Lars Van Meijel (66-66) held third place on on 12-under 132.
Sharma (66-67) was the best-placed Indian in T4 on 11-under along with Switzerland’s Joel Girrbach (69-64) and Frederic Lacroix (67-66) of France.
The cut fell at two-under 142 with 69 players including all the three amateurs in the field making the grade. Twenty Indians of a total of 55 made the cut.
Fitzpatrick, 24 and playing his rookie season on the Challenge Tour, is the younger brother of 2022 US Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick.
The man from Sheffield has gone bogey-free in the tournament, though he missed the cut at last week’s Black Bull Challenge.
Hard drive
On Wednesday, Fitz the younger recorded an eagle and five birdies on his drive to the top.
The highlights of his second round included an outstanding drive on the par-4 first hole that landed on the green and set up a birdie, a 10-foot eagle conversion on the fifth and a chip-in from the bunker for birdie on the ninth.
On his second trip to India, Fitzpatrick said, “I was trying to push it to the back of my mind (about being bogey-free) because normally the moment you think like that, a bogey happens straight away.
“We had our game plan to keep it on the fairway. You don’t need to be aggressive with these flags and the greens are so good, you can hole putts.
“A few lucky breaks, a couple of putts holed and I scored well. I’ve worked pretty hard for my long game to be good, and it’s nice to see it pay off a bit.”
The left-handed Sharma, tied fifth and two shots off the lead overnight sank three long birdie putts between 10 and 30 feet.
The 22-year-old who has yet to register his first win then added two more birdies courtesy of some accurate chipping on the way home.
Scrambling home
Currently fourth on the Tata Steel PGTI Rankings, Sharma said, “I started well then didn’t hit it great in the middle of the round but stayed patient and managed to scramble.
“Made some crucial par saves on the front-nine that kept me error-free. I’ve been working on a few things since the last event which I’m trying to put into practice.
“Importantly, I’m well-placed at the moment and need to capitalise on that.”
Aman Raj, like Kartik, fired a flawless 67, to move up six places and end the day in tied 10 on nine-under 135.
Udayan Mane (64) and M. Dharma (66) were T15 on eight-under 136. Udayan fired the day’s joint best score of 64.
Leaderboard (top five)
130: Alex Fitzpatrick (Ena) 65-65
131: Ivan Cantero Gutierrez (Esp) 66-65
132: Lars Van Meijel (Ned) 66-66
133: Joel Girrbach (Sui) 69-64; Frederic Lacroix (Fra) 67-66; Kartik Sharma (Ind) 66-67
Also read: Ice-cool Chouhan earns first int’l title at Black Bull Challenge
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