Indian golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar made a birdie-birdie finish to take a slender one-shot lead into the third and final round of the Yeangder Tournament Players Championship here on Sunday.
When the second round finally ended on Sunday afternoon, Bhullar had carded a second round 69 to add to his 66 in the first round to take his total to nine-under 135.
The 24-year-old Indian was one ahead of 14-time Asian Tour winner Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand, who shot the round’s lowest score of 66 to get to eight-under 136 at the Linkou International Golf and Country Club.
Berry Henson (68) and Jason Knutzon (71) of the United States shared third place at seven-under 137. Himmat Rai (70) moved up from 20th to 10th at three-under 141, but Anirban Lahiri (74) slipped from fifth to tied 18th at two-under 142.
Chiragh Kumar (70) moved up to tied 32nd from tied 82nd at even par 144, while Ajeetesh Sandhu (74) was tied 62nd at three-over. The cut was set at three-over-par with 76 players making the cut.
The third and final round of the Yeangder TPC will be played on Monday after inclement weather on Saturday forced play to be abandoned and left tournament officials with no choice but to reduce the $500,000 event into a 54-strokeplay tournament.
Although Bhullar is standing on the verge of winning his third Asian Tour title with 18 holes to play, he remains wary of Thaworn who lurks closely.
“The final 18 is going to be interesting as it has been a long time since I last played with Thaworn,” said Bhullar.
