PANCHKULA, Nov 10: Karandeep Kochhar continued his impressive run at the TATA Steel PGTI Players Championship as he emerged halfway leader after returning a four-under-68 on Tuesday.
Karandeep, who is still searching for his first win since turning professional, climbed one spot from his overnight tied second, taking his total to 10-under-134.
Delhi-based Arjun Prasad carded the day’s joint lowest score of 67 to move up 10 spots to joint second at eight-under-136. Mysuru’s Yashas Chandra struck a 68 to also be tied second. He made a gain of four spots.
Both Arjun and Yashas played their second rounds at the Panchkula Golf Club.
Each half of the field has so far played a round each at the Chandigarh Golf Club and the Panchkula Golf Club.
The action now shifts to the Chandigarh Golf Club as it hosts the last two rounds.
The halfway cut came down at two-over-146 as 53 professionals made it to the money rounds.
Karandeep, whose only win on the PGTI came in 2016 as an amateur, got his round going with a birdie on the second where his good chip left him an easy tap-in. He collected another birdie on the third and then made a couple of great par saves on the ninth and 10th.
An accurate approach shot on the 12th earned him his third birdie. He also drove well to pick up birdies on the 13th and 16th, both par-5s before picking first bogey of the week on the 16th.
Chandigarh’s Akshay Sharma (68), the winner on the PGTI last week, was in a four-way tie for fourth spot at seven-under-137 along with Gurugram’s Veer Ahlawat (71), Chandigarh’s Ranjit Singh (67) and Kolkata’s Shankar Das (69).
Round one leader Aadil Bedi (73) of Chandigarh dropped to tied eighth position at six-under-138.
The seven others in tied eighth included PGTI Order of Merit leader Udayan Mane (69) of Pune as well as local players Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (69) and Amrit Lal (70).
Defending champ Rashid Khan (73) of Delhi was a further shot back in tied 17th along with Kolkata’s Divyanshu Bajaj (75), who dropped 15 places from his overnight tied second.
Chandigarh’s Ajeetesh Sandhu, Patna’s Aman Raj, Kolkata’s Viraj Madappa and Bengaluru’s Khalin Joshi were all bunched in tied 21st at two-under-142.
Bengaluru’s Chikkarangppa was placed tied 35th at even-par-144.
Indian star Jyoti Randhawa withdrew from the event following an injury. (PTI)
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