Indian golfer Udayan Mane tamed the windy conditions to put himself in medal contention with a superb six-under 66, which left him tied third midway through the Asian Games golf tournament, in Incheon on Friday.
Mane, one of the four players to card 66 in the second round, is eight-under 136 and three shots behind the new leader local 17-year-old lad Youm Eunho.
Eunho added a 66 to his first round 67 to get to 11-under while overnight leader, Cheng Tsung Pan (69) moved to nine-under 135 but slipped to second place.
Mane (70-66) was third alongside another Korean Yu Chun An (70-66).
While the 23-year-old Bangalore golfer Mane (70-66) was well-placed at third, Manu Gandas (71-69) moved up well from overnight tied 20th to inside top-10 at eighth place. Feroz Garewal (70-73) was tied 21st and Samarth Dwivedi (71-73) was tied 25th.
The Indian team was still in fifth place, Taipei maintained the top spot with a total of 408 after two rounds and a big lead of seven strokes over defending champions Korea (415).
Thailand (417) and China (417) were tied for third with India another two strokes behind at 419 in fifth. On the women’s side, Gurbani Singh was the pick among Indian with a card of even par 72, while Aditi Ashok carded 75 and Astha Madan 79.
Individually Gurbani (75-72) was 15th, while Aditi Ashok (78-75) was 22nd and Astha Madan (75-79) was 22nd). Indian women stayed eighth in team standings where Thailand (271) held a five shot lead over Korea (276) and China were third at 282.
Starting from the back nine, Mane was in excellent form with three-under 33 on either side and had seven birdies against one bogey. He opened with a bogey on 10th, but made no mistakes thereafter.
“It was windy, but I felt good. I hit the ball straight and made decent putts,” said Mane.
“We just need to stay patient and wait for the opportunities,” said Mane. “We are very hopeful of a good result.”
After the bogey on 10th, Mane birdied the 12th, 14th, 16th and 17th and turned in three—under. He maintained the momentum and birdied the first, fourth and sixth and parred the final three holes to card 66.
“Maybe I missed a shot or two out there, but that’s golf,” added Mane.
Jasjit Singh, coach of the Indian team, said, “Feroze was three-over after 17 holes and Samarth was two-over after five holes. Both held up well and closed well.
“Feroz holed out the par-5 ninth from just over 60 yards for an eagle to get to one-over. Manu was just one-over after 16 holes but he putted well for a birdie-birdie finish to get to three-under.”
The Indians, who had problems in the closing stages on the first day, showed good mental strength to play catch up in the last stages on the second day.
“The teams have been playing well and they have had good exposure trips,” added Jasjit.
The team captain, Raian Irani, said, “Our decision to come and play here in July has helped as the players are accustomed and have adapted well.”
China’s Guan Tianglang shot par and slipped from tied fifth to 13th at three—under 141, but China were helped Bai Zhenkai (75-66) and stayed tied third.
