A birdie-birdie finish saw overnight leader Rory Hie wrest back his lead from Abhijit Chadha in the second round of $300,000 Classic Golf and Country Club International Championship here on Friday.
The Indonesian carded four-under 68 for an aggregate of 12-under 132 to lead by one stroke over Chadha who followed his first-round 68 with an improved 65.
The day’s best bogey-free card of 64 came from Nicholas Latimer and saw the American jump to the tied sixth spot at nine-under.
Chadha, who teed off in the morning, led the field for the better part of the day at 11-under. Rory Hie, who started from the 10th hole in the afternoon, owed the one-stroke cushion to his strong finish.
With the course not posing too many challenges, notwithstanding the humid condition, low scores continued. As a result, the ‘cut’ came at one-under 71 and left 75 players, including 37 Indians, in the fray over the weekend.
Before Rory’s late charge, Chadha’s 65 proved the talking point of the day.
“I putted really well today and put myself in good positions. Wherever I was, I took the advantage and played well overall,” said the 28-year-old. “I am really happy to be in this position. For the next two rounds, I want to go as low as possible. I have won (three times) earlier on this course so I’m not intimidated at all.”
Aman Raj, trailing Chadha by one stroke, again shot a 67 while Rashid Khan (68, 66) joined him by carding a second successive bogey-free round.
The scores (second round):132: Rory Hie (Ina) (64, 68); 133: Abhijit Chadha (68, 65); 134 : Aman Raj (67, 67), Kosuke Hamamoto (Tha) (69, 65); Rashid Khan (68, 66); 135 : Yongcharoenchai (Tha) (66, 69), Nicholas Latimer (USA) (71, 64), Byungjun Kim (Kor) (69, 66) and Aadil Bedi (67, 68).
Other prominent Indians: 137 : Ankur Chadha (69, 68), S. Chikkarangappa (70, 67), Abhinav Lohan (69, 68); 138 : Veer Ahlawat (71, 67), Karandeep Kochhar (72, 66); 139 : Yashas Chandra (69, 70), Kshitij Naveed Kaul (69, 70), Himmat Rai (68, 71) and Khalin Joshi (73, 66) .
