Kullar, Vijay Kumar on top in round two of Final Qualifying at Kensville

By Rahul Banerji 

Deepinder Singh Kullar of DLF Golf & Country Club and Lucknow’s Vijay Kumar took a two-shot lead into the third round of the PGTI’s Final Qualifying Stage for 2020 at the Kensville Golf & Country Club near Ahmedabad on Wednesday.

The Gurgaon-based Deepinder (71-73) and seasoned 51-year-old Vijay (72-72), a former Indian Open champion, were tied for the lead on even-par-144s.

Ten players were bunched together in tied third place at 2-over-146 including round one joint leaders Kartik Sharma (76) of Gurgaon and Delhi’s Pawan Verma (76).

The cut fell at 11-over-155 on a windy day with 80 going through to the final two rounds.

Kullar, lying overnight tied third and one off the lead, made four birdies and five bogeys during his round. The 38-year-old’s iron-play set up two tap-in birdies and he came within a whisker of making a hole-in-one as well.

He also sank two long birdie putts.    

Kullar said later, “I’m quite pleased with my effort taking into account the tough conditions as it was extremely windy. It was tough to get the ball near the pins. So, it was all about making up and downs and scrambling.

Round’s highlight

“I missed quite a few up and downs but my iron hitting was good and I sank a couple of long putts as well. The highlight of my round was my seven-iron tee shot on the par-3 11^th that stopped an inch from the hole,

“Last season I suffered two injuries that affected my performance and saw me finish outside the top-60 of the PGTI Order of Merit. First, I had a shoulder injury which put a lot of pressure on my right arm which in turn resulted in a tennis elbow.

“I’ve almost recovered fully from my injuries and am therefore looking at a far better performance this year,” added Deepinder, also a leading coach in the Delhi-NCR region.

Vijay Kumar, overnight tied fifth and two off the lead, made two birdies and two bogeys on Wednesday to move up four places.

At the end of round four on Friday, the top 38 players will earn full cards for the 2020 Tata Steel PGTI season.

Long conversions

On day one, Kartik Sharma, also of the DLF Golf & Country Club and Verma shared the lead on 2-under-70s.

While 19-year-old Kartik, one of India’s leading amateurs, swapped five birdies in exchange for three bogeys, Verma, the 2018 Feeder Tour Order of Merit champion, picked up seven birdies against five bogeys.

Kartik, who represented the International team at the Junior Presidents Cup in Melbourne last year, made three long birdie conversions from 12 to 25 feet in his round.  

Good momentum

Kartik, making his first attempt at the PGTI Qualifying School, said, “I played well in the Pre Qualifying having finished tied fourth in Pre Q I. I feel I’ve carried that momentum into the Final Stage.

“So far, I’ve had a good game-plan and have executed that plan well. Today I was struggling with the speed on the greens early on but then adapted to it and putted well in the second half of my round.

“I also played some good wedge shots towards the end of my round,” added Sharma, whose best amateur world ranking has been 120.

Also read: Gulfam tops PGTI Pre Qualifying III as 28 enter Final Stage