By Rahul Banerji
Shivendra Singh Sisodia returned a tournament-best 9-under 63 for the halfway lead at the Rs. 50 lakh Tata Steel PGTI Players Championship at the Chandigarh Golf Club on Wednesday.
Gurgaon-based Sisodia (68-63), tied fifth overnight two shots off the lead, was 13-under 131 following his career-best round for a two-shot lead, the PGTI said.
Bangladesh’s Md Zamal Hossain Mollah (67-66) came up with a flawless 66 on Wednesday to sit second on 11-under 133.
Overnight leader Abhijit Singh Chadha (66-69) of Chandigarh slipped to third on day two with a 69 that took his total to nine-under 135.
The cut came at 1-over 145 with 57 professionals making the final two days.
Sisodia, searching for his maiden title and not in the best of form in the current season, began the day with a bogey off a missed short putt.
However, he began to turn it around with birdie on the second where he recovered from the bunker lip with a great up and down.
On point
Sisodia’s outstanding wedge shots and putting then earned him three more birdies on the front nine followed by four in a row from 10 to 13.
Shivendra then chipped-in for birdie on 16 before picking up another on 17 to end up just one short of Sunit Chowrasia’s course record set at the last edition of the event in 2020.
Sisodia said, “I hada very good putting stroke today and I read the lines well. I also drove it really well that helped me place the ball in good positions and thereby create birdie chances.
“The wind was only a factor in the first half of the day. I handled the conditions well.
“I found the trees several times but managed to get myself out of trouble on all those occasions extracting birdies most of the time.
“The par save on nine was probably the highlight of my round. I didn’t have a clear shot from the trees but managed to make a quality up and down there.
“That was a huge confidence-booster. I’m delighted to have shot my career-best score.”
Error-free
Mollah had an error-free day after a slow start with pars on the first eight holes.
Driving it well for the second day in succession, Mollah made an exceptional par save on 10 that lifted his game. He then picked up five birdies on the back nine.
Chadha made the par-5s count as he was five-under on the four at the CGC including an eagle on 13 where he found the green in two.
The standout feature of his game was chipping from around the green which set up three tap-in birdies for him.
Tricity golfer Angad Cheema shot a 67 that featured an eagle-two on 17. Cheema was T4 on 8-under 136 along with Gurgaon’s Kartik Sharma who fired a 69.
Chandigarh’s Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (67) was tied sixth on 7-under 137 along with Kolkata’s Sunit Chowrasia (65).
Udayan Mane (68) was eighth on 6-under 138.
Defending champion Karandeep Kochhar (69) of Chandigarh ended the day in tied 11th on 4-under 140.
Also read: Abhijit Chadha revels in familiar conditions for Players C’ship lead
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