The Hindu : Sport / Golf : Ranjit Singh in the van

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Friday, Sep 23, 2005

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Sport - Golf

Ranjit Singh in the van

Sports Reporter

CHENNAI: Ranjit Singh jumped to the top of the leaderboard with a two-stroke lead over overnight leader S.S.P. Chowrasia in the second round of The Hindu Golf Open, which forms the third leg of the Amby Valley PGAI Tour, at the Cosmo-TNGF course here on Thursday.

Ranjit carded in another six-under to finish the day at 12-under 132, ahead of the Kolkata's Chowrasia who fired a 8-under 134. As many as 61 players including one amateur — L. Selvadurai of ONGC (Chennai) — made the cut which was applied at four-over 148.

To add to his five-under 67 on Wednesday, Ashok Kumar, the defending champion, made a four-under for a total of 9-under 135 to be third.

Ranjit began from the 10th and was in trouble on the par-4 12th. His ball got plugged in the root of a tree and he had to take a penalty drop. He then overshot the green before making a double bogey. However, Ranjit made a birdie on the 14th with a 10-footer. After missing a birdie on the next hole, he made five straight birdies beginning with the 16th. He also missed an eagle on the second.

The story would have been a bit different had he not missed three more birdies on the third, fifth and sixth. The lanky pro then closed in with birdies on the last two holes, the one on the eight was a chip-in from the right bunker. "Everything was going well for me. Well for that kind of a round, one cannot complain," said Ranjit.

Chowrasia felt the hard green is troubling all golfers alike. "It was quite a frustrating day," admitted Chowrasia.

The scores:

Professionals: 1. Ranjit Singh (66, 66 — 132); 2. S.S.P. Chowrasia (64,70 — 134); 3. Ashok Kumar (67,68 — 135); 4. Vijay Kumar (68, 69 — 137); 5. Mohd. Islam (71, 67 — 138); Harinder Gupta (69, 69 — 138); 7. Matloob Rana (69, 70 — 139); 8. Ali Sher (73, 67 — 140), C. Muniyappa (71, 69 — 140), Gurbaaz Mann (71, 69 — 140), Waheed Balouch (67, 73 — 140).

Amateurs: L. Selvadurai (73, 73 — 146); R. Prithviraj (76, 77 — 153).

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