Mithun Perera and Vikrant Chopra caught up with overnight leader N. Thangaraja on the leaderboard of the Chennai Open golf championship, at the Madras Gymkhana Club annexe. The three are tied at 9-under 131.
Defending champion Mukesh Kumar is in fourth place with a two-day total of 8-under 132. Shamim Khan dropped to tied fifth from second with a score of 69 and an overall tally of 7-under (133).
While Vikrant jumped two places, Mithun took a huge leap of 11. At tied 12th place at the end of round one — seven shots behind the leader — Mithun worked his way to the top with some fine putting.
The Sri Lankan has taken his inability to bag any title in the last four years in his stride. The 31-year-old was on raging form, firing birdies in the first and second hole, which gave him the confidence to march ahead.
After making the turn at three-under, Mithun did a two-under on the back-nine, with the day’s score of 63. The Colombo-based professional produced his best shot of the day on the 10th hole when his approach from 140 yards landed inches from the pin. His birdies on the 11th and 14th were a result of two 15-feet conversions.
Thangaraja had a quiet day after posting a 70, with five bogeys to boot.
“It [nice] to see two Sri Lankans on the leaderboard. My putting was good even though I think game-wise I played better yesterday (Thursday),” said Mithun.
The scores (day two, Indians unless stated):131: N. Thangaraja (SL) (61, 70); Mithun Perera (SL) (68, 63); Vikrant Chopra (66, 65); 132: Mukesh Kumar (66, 66); 133: Shamim Khan 133 (64, 69), Sujjan Singh (67, 66); 134: Divyanshu Bajaj 134 (69, 65), Feroz Singh Garewal (68, 66); 135: Md. Zamal Hossain Mollah (68, 67), Badal Hossain (67, 68) .
