At tied 12th, SSP Chowrasia (69) remained the highest-placed Indian but it was Jeev Milkha Singh who brought home the best card among his compatriots - a three-under 67 - in the second round of the Hong Kong Open golf tournament here today.
Chowrasia was six-under 134 overall after picking up two birdies against a lone bogey at the Hong Kong Golf course.
Jeev, meanwhile, stroked in five birdies against a couple of bogeys to leapfrog 40 places to tied 54th with a total of two-under 138.
“I feel my game is getting better, my putting and driving have improved as well. I was practically struggling with my games over the past one year but now it’s getting better. So I’m pretty happy,” an elated Chowrasia said.
Jyoti Randhawa was a stroke adrift of Chowrasia after he too turned in a 69 to go down six places to tied 22nd.
Randhawa got off to a brilliant start and made the turn at two-under before things turned worse. The back-nine comprised two bogeys, against a lone birdie, as Randhawa slipped down the leaderboard.
A mid-round slump also prevented Shiv Kapur from building on a good start as he carded a second successive two-under 68.
With a birdie hat-trick from the second to fourth hole, it was a perfect start to the proceedings for Kapur but three bogeys between the fifth and 15th hole brought him back to square one.
However, Kapur managed to recover in time for back-to-back birdies on the closing holes to gain six places on the leaderboard and be tied 34th with a total of four-under 136.
Further down, Rahil Gangjee turned in an even-par card to be three-under overall at tied 43rd.
Overnight tied 16th with an opening round of 66, Gaganjeet Bhullar had a tough day as he only found bogeys, stumbling to four for a card of four-over 74 that left him tied 83rd with a total of even-par 140.
Gaurav Ghei (74) and Anirban Lahiri (72) were tied 110th with a total of three—over 143.
After the poor three-over 73 in the opening round, C Muniyappa carded a slightly improved one-over 71 but he still slipped a rung to tied 119th at one-over overall.
Digvijay Singh followed him a stroke behind at tied 123rd after returning a one-under 69.
At the top, there was a four-way tie for the lead with French Gregory Bourdy (67), Dutch Robert-Jan Derksen (68), Chinese Liang Wen-chong (65) and South African Charl Schwartzel (66) totalling nine-under after two rounds.
