By Rahul Banerji
Harendra Gupta led the Tata Steel PGTI Tour Championship by a shot but it was Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia who set Jamshedpur alight in the second round with an 11-under par card on Friday.
Gupta recorded his second blemish-free round of the week, a 9-under 63 to top the leader-board on 17-under par 127 at the Rs 1.5 crore ($203,800 approx) year-ending event.
Three-time Indian Open champion Chawrasia though held centre-stage, climbing 11 places to second on 16-under 128 with the round of the day. The Kolkata golfer is also a three-time winner at the Steel City.
Action continues to be divided between Jamshedpur’s Beldih and Golmuri golf courses with the surviving field swapping courses every nine holes over the final two days.
Noida’s Amardeep Malik, also error-free for the tournament so far, produced a 66 to be placed third on 15-under-129 at the halfway stage, the PGTI media office said.
Overnight leader Chikkarangappa S. of Bangalore dropped to fourth on 14-under-130 after a 68 on Friday at the more testing Beldih course.
Gaganjeet Bhullar, one of the star attractions this week, had a 63 to share fifth place on 12-under-132 along with Chandigarh’s Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (67) and Delhi’s Arjun Prasad (68).
The cut fell at 2-under-142 with 53 professionals going through to the money rounds.
Venue switch
After one half of the field played their 18 holes at Beldih Golf Club and the other at Golmuri in round one, they switched venues in round two.
In the third and fourth rounds, all players will now play their first nine holes at Golmuri and the second nine at Beldih.
Chandigarh’s Gupta (64-63) recorded the joint best score at Golmuri in round two. Gupta, who suffered a groin injury on Thursday, was in much better shape on day two.
The 36-year-old, a five-time winner on the PGTI, rode some accurate hitting with three early birdies, also finding the edge of the green with the driver on the fourth.
However, it was on the back nine that Gupta really turned up the heat.
He picked up an eagle on the 12th and four more birdies including the 15th where he recovered from the trees with a seven-iron second shot that landed 12 feet from the pin.
‘Tougher track’
“Beldih is the tougher course to score on so I feel I had an advantage having started with an 8-under there in round one,” Gupta said later.
“In fact, I feel my injury was a blessing in disguise as it helped me focus better.
“I tended to my injury with some warm compress last evening so there was no pain today and I felt much better on the course.
“I’ve not struck such low numbers in a long time so I’m quite pleased with my effort so far. I began the day by missing a four feet putt for eagle on the second but thereafter everything went perfectly.
“I struck my four and five irons really well and did not need too many long putts.
“Tee shots will be the key going forward and one will also need to adapt well to the different challenges posed by the two courses.
“While Beldih has smaller greens it also has wider fairways as compared to Golmuri,” added Harendra whose last top-10 came a year and a half back.
Stunning numbers
Chawrasia (67-61) posted some amazing numbers during his second round at Beldih to take the tournament by storm.
Chawrasia, tied 13th and five off the lead on day one, came up with two eagles, nine birdies and two bogeys on Friday for his best-ever round.
On the day, he found 12 out of 14 fairways, made 17 greens in regulation and had a total of 25 putts.
The 42-year-old opened with a seven-iron tee shot on the par-3 first hole which almost fetched him a hole-in-one.
Thereafter he made five conversions from between 10 and 20 feet. His two eagles came on the third and 12th, one a six-foot conversion and the other a 15-footer.
Chawrasia said, “It’s the lowest number I’ve ever shot.
“After being three-under on the first three holes I knew I was looking at a really low number but I could’ve never imagined a score of 11-under.
“On day one the putts didn’t roll in for me but today everything seemed to find the hole.
“My driving, approach shots and chipping was also near-perfect. It was one of those days when everything just worked out wonderfully.
Covid handicap
“My experience of playing these two courses on the same day and winning will help going into the last two rounds,” added SSP, who admits his energy levels are still hampered by a Covid-19 attack in August.
Among the other prominent names, Jyoti Randhawa (65), Rahil Gangjee (64), PGTI Order of Merit leader Karandeep Kochhar (68) and Akshay Sharma (63) were all tied eighth on 11-under-133,
Anirban Lahiri (69) was a further shot back in 12th, Rashid Khan (64) was tied 14th on 8-under-136 while Shiv Kapur (69) was tied 19th on 7-under-137.
Defending champion Udayan Mane missed the cut with a level par-144.
Also read: Chikka fires a blistering 62 for Tour Championship lead
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