The Hindu : Sport / Golf : Ashok Kumar, Vivek Bhandari in lead

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Saturday, Feb 24, 2007
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Sport - Golf

Ashok Kumar, Vivek Bhandari in lead

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: Ashok Kumar found a partner atop the leader board after the second round in the Solaris Global Green PGTI golf tournament at the Bangalore Golf Club here.

Vivek Bhandari, the 35-year-old Delhi golfer, shared the day's best card with three others (Anura Rohana, Inderjit Bhalotia and Himmat Singh Rai) and his three under 67 put him in the joint lead with Ashok Kumar.

Vivek played solidly to notch up four birdies and just one bogey to steer himself up into a good position for the final two rounds.

Overnight leader Ashok's game was a real see-saw in the second round. Every birdie that he made, there were six of them, was cancelled with a similar number of bogeys. Ashok finally ended with a score of level par 70, but his first round brilliance helped him share the top spot after 36 holes.

S.S.P. Chowrasia too moved up to be in striking distance of the joint leaders. Chowrasia, starting from the 10th tee box, came back with a card of four under par 66 to be one stroke behind the joint leaders.

Karnataka Golf Association's C. Muniyappa stayed in contention with a second successive card of two under par 68 to be two behind the joint leaders.

First hole-in-one

The day would be etched forever in the mind of Noida's Rohit Choudhary, who scored his first ever hole-in-one. Rohit hit a six iron off the 187-yard par three 10th hole and the ball landed ahead of the pin, but spun back into the hole.

In the amateur section, Abhishek Jha looked all set to clinch the title with an eight-stroke lead over Arjun Lall and local teenager Chikkarangappa.

The cut was applied at five over 145 and 52 golfers progressed into the final two rounds. Rahil Gangjee, Uttam Singh Mundy, Vijay Kumar and Gurbaaz Mann all missed the cut.

The results (after 36 holes):

134 Vivek Bhandai (67, 67), Ashok Kumar (64, 70); 135 S.S.P. Chowrasia; 136 C. Muniyappa (68, 68); 137 Anura Rohana (70, 67), Himmat Singh Rai (70, 67), Yusuf Ali (68, 69), Rahul Ganapathy (67, 70), Digvijay Singh (67, 70), Kunal Bhasin (67, 70).

Amateurs:

142 Abhishek Jha (71, 71); 150 Arjun Lall (78, 72), Chikkarangappa (71, 79).

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