By Rahul Banerji
Shiv Kapur put himself in line for an unprecedented repeat win in the $400,000 Panasonic Open India with a second straight 5-under 67 to share the lead on 10-under 134 along with Australians Terry Pilkadris and Adam Blyth at the Classic Golf and Country Club near here on Saturday.
Playing in the second half – the second round needing to be squeezed in to make sure it was completed in time – Kapur, winner at the Delhi Golf Club in 2017, played controlled golf through the day.
Four under par after the first nine holes in the course of which he also dropped his only shot of the day, the 2017 winner picked up one further shot to match his 67 of the opening round two days ago.
“I played really well today,” Kapur said later.” Conditions were tough, it was really, really greasy and conditions were very different to how they were on Thursday.
“But I had really good control over the ball, hit it beautifully all day. It was always going to be tough to make a lot of birdies but I seemed to come out of it firing.
Hot putter
In the morning, Blyth turned in the day’s best round, a 9-under 63 to follow his 71 of the first round to set the bar, which Pilkadris and Kapur were to match later.
“I’ve been playing well of late and it was fantastic to see the putts going in today,” Blyth said. In the middle of my back-nine, I got hot and went on a birdie run and it was nice to finish off with another birdie on the last.
“Overall it was a solid round of golf. This is my best score on the Asian Tour after all these years and to be able to shoot a score like this on a new course just brings back the self-belief that I can play good golf.”
Three-time Panasonic Open India runner-up Siddikur Rahman finished the day on 8-under 136 (69-67) to share fourth place with Taiwan’s Hung Chien-yao.
Tracking well
Sitting behind Kapur were Rashi Khan, Vikrant Chopra and S. Chikkarangappa in tied sixth place on 7-under 137 as 30 Indians in all made the cut into Sunday’s final round, the tournament having been truncated by poor visibility on the first two days.
Defending champion Khalin Joshi was a shot behind on 6-under 138 (67-71) along with six others including Classic International winner Rory Hie of Indonesia (70-68).
Going through to the money round were tour seniors Jeev Milkha Singhj and Jyoti Randhawa (on 2-under 142 (70-72) and 1-under 143 (72-71) respectively, which the third, Arjun Atwal could not follow up on his first round 69, a 77 on Saturday sending him out.
Also missing out was 2105 Panasonic Open India winner Chiragh Kumar and 2012 champion Digvijay Singh as the cut fell at 1-under 143, while 2016 winner Mukesh Kumar came safely through.
Learning curve
Two young men who were in contention after round one, Kshitij Naved Kaul and Karandeep Kochar carded level par rounds to stay at 5-under 139 while the ailing Aadil Bedi battled through to a 3-under 141 alongside Arjun Prasad in tied 29th.
Kaul, who was tied for the lead at one point at 100uder after his first eight holes had a day of contrasting nines, his back nine containing two double-bogeys and a further dropped shot to undo the good work of the front nine.
Rashid Khan (67-70) took time to pick up some momentum but finally got his act together towards the end with a chip-in eagle and two birdies against one dropped shot late on his front nine.
“The round did not go as per my expectations,” he said afterwards. “I was hitting it OK but missing on both sides of the green. The wind was quite confusing, it was switching all the time which made matters worse.
“I missed a lot of greens today unlike yesterday when I missed just one. Today I hit 10 greens in regulation so it was a day of contrasts when compared to Friday.
“Overall I managed to keep myself in the game despite the slow start, and looking forward to tomorrow.”
Also read: Jeev, Jyoti, Arjun: A rare coming together at Panasonic Open India
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