Mane stays in the 60s; in four-way Bengal Open lead

By Rahul Banerji

Udayan Mane is in the form of his life and on Friday, chalked up his 14^th straight sub-70 round to join a four-way tie for the Bengal Open lead at the Tollygunge Club in Kolkata.

The Order of Merit leader from Pune, searching for a record fourth straight title on the Tata Steel PGTI, was back in familiar territory with a 7-under par 63 as he pulled level with Khalin Joshi, Aadil Bedi and Om Prakash Chouhan on 10-under 130.

The four were a shot ahead of overnight leader Digvijay Singh of Gurgaon, who carded 1-under 69 on the day.

Pre-tournament favourite Mane’s 7-under-63 on Friday was his 14^th consecutive round in the 60s on the PGTI and his 12^th straight card of 68 or better during this astounding run of form.

Bangalore’s Joshi (67-63), Chandigarh’s Bedi (65-65) and Mhow’s Chouhan (65-65) too enjoyed returned solid rounds to join Mane (67-63) at the top of the leader-board.

Sudden end

Mukesh Kumar (65) of Mhow and Sri Lankan N. Thangaraja (66) were alongside Digvijay in tied fifth at what will be the final event on the PGTI calendar for now thanks to the growing corona-virus threat.

Noida’s Dipankar Kaushal had the best round of the day, a flawless 8-under-62, to sit in eighth place on 8-under-132.

The cut fell at level-par-140 with 56 professionals progressing to the weekend rounds.

Mane started his round with a 15-foot eagle conversion and backed that up with three consecutive birdies where he sank two putts from a range of 18 to 20 feet. A missed chip-putt before the turn gave Mane his only bogey of the day.

Solid putting

Mane then kept up the intensity on his way back to the clubhouse by picking up three more birdies thanks to two conversions from a range of 12 to 15 feet.

Mane said, “I hit more fairways today in comparison to yesterday and thus created more birdie opportunities.

“I also took advantage of the par-5s today. I was four-under on the par-5s in round two as compared to one-under in round one.

“I’ve been playing some of my best golf over the last few months and the confidence has just grown with each passing event. I’m enjoying myself on the golf course and that reflects in my scores.”

Like Mane, Joshi too began his round with an eagle on the 10^th hole where he drained an eight-footer. He then collected four more birdies on the back-nine in exchange for two bogeys.

Joshi went on to add an additional three birdies to his card on the front nine and said, “I made a number of putts from a range of 10 to 12 feet today and holed more putts than I did in the first round.

‘Missed out’

“That was the big difference. However, I was also disappointed to miss out on three birdie putts within five feet.”

Aadil Bedi, playing his first PGTI event of the season, mixed six birdies with a bogey during his round of 65. Bedi landed his drives near the green on the 14^th and 15^th to set up chip-putt birdies.

Chouhan was seven-under for the day through the first 13 holes before he stumbled with three bogeys where he struggled with his approach shots and missed chip-putts. Om Prakash, however, did manage to extract a birdie on the 16^th.

Dipankar Kaushal’s sensational effort saw him land a lot of shots within five feet of the pin and he gained 34 places from his overnight tied 42^nd.

Chikkarangappa S. of Bangalore was ninth on 7-under-133.

Kolkata’s Viraj Madappa, Bangalore’s Rahil Gangjee and defending champion Md Zamal Hossain Mollah of Bangladesh were among five bunched in tied 10^th on 6-under-134.

Also read: Playoff win at Eagleton gives Mane three in a row; emulates Ashok Kumar