Richie Ramsay of Scotland showed consistency in carding another round of five-under 66 for a combined score 132 to take over sole lead after the second round of the Hero Indian Open golf championship at the KGA course here on Friday.
Thais Chapchai Nirat and Panuphol Pittayarat mirrored each other’s fortunes for the second day running — each shot three-under each to take their two day tally to 135 and share second spot with Finn Jaakko Makitalo who also turned in an identical card.
After a sharp 25-minute drizzle cooled off the greens Nirat and Pittayarat, who had both shot four under on the first day, played with confidence, weathering the rains and the narrow fairways with élan.
Meanwhile, Phillipino Agnelo Que sneaked in with another round of 68 to finish two rounds on 136.
Indian hopefuls Gaganjeet Bhullar and Shiv Kapur are in joint fourth and joint fifth spots respectively, both slipping up in the second round.
After shooting two-under for a two-round tally of 137, Bhullar said: “If my putting today was as good as it was yesterday, I would be nine or ten under.
“I hit the wrong line on the fourth hole. Until then was doing well with eight straight regulation putts. Then, it all went awry.”
“But there is lot of golf still left in the championship.”
Joint overnight leader James Morrison also had a pretty ordinary day, making even par to find himself joint fourth.
Shiv missed some close putts on the back-nine and ended up even par for the second round.
“It was disappointing the way it ended…after a fine start in the morning,” he said. “But that’s the way it is and I have been on the scene long enough to understand and accept it.
“All is not lost, there are 36 more holes to play and lot will depend upon how well the ball rolls for me on the next two days.”
Making the turn at three-under, Kapur had a bogey and a double bogey over the last few holes. His 71 in the second round took his tally to joint fifth on 138.
Kwanchai Tannin shared the day’s best card with leader Ramsay with a five under 66.
The scores: Richie Ramsay (66, 66) 132 ; Panuphol Pittayarat (67, 68), Chapchai Nirat (67, 68), Jaakko Makitalo (67, 68) 135 , Angelo Que (68, 68) 136 ; Thaworn Wiratchant (69, 68), Gaganjeet Bhullar (68, 69), Kwanchai Tannin (71, 66), James Morrison (66, 71) 137 ; Adam Groom (70, 68), Shiv Kapur (67, 71), Arnold Vongvanij (71, 67), Simon Griffiths (70, 68), Adilson Da Silva (70, 68), Scott Varr (70, 68), Jason Knutzon (68, 70) 138 .
The Indians who made the cut (145): Chiragh Kumar, S. Chikkarangappa, Jyoti Randhawa 140 ; Harendra Gupta, Anirban Lahiri 141 ; Shamim Khan, Rashid Khan, Udayan Mane 142 ; Om Prakash Chouhan, Khalin Joshi, Angad Cheema 143 ; Abhijit Singh Chada, Sanjay Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Shankar Das, S.S.P. Chowrasia, Vinod Kumar, Himmat Rai, Honey Baisoya, Rahul Bajaj 144 ; Mukesh Kumar, Arshdeep Tiwana, Vijay Kumar, Ajeetesh Sandhu 145 .
