The winner of the Panchkula PGTI event last month, Chandigarh golfer Akshay Sharma played an under round, a four-under-68, in the tough conditions at the Chandigarh Golf Club to take the halfway lead at the Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational 2020 on Friday.
Sharma with his two-day tally of nine-under-135 has been placed at the top of the leaders’ board. Noida’s Amardeep Malik and Gurugram-based Veer Ahlawat played a card of four-under-68 each for the second day in succession to be placed at tied second.
Eighteen-year-old Delhi-based rookie golfer Harshjeet Singh Sethie struck a fine 67 to be placed fourth at seven-under-137. Pre-tournament favourite Anirban Lahiri moved up five places into tied fifth at six-under-138.
Sharma made five birdies and a bogey on his action-packed back nine and missed out on a hole-in-one by a foot on the 11th. He also made a good chip-putt for birdie on the 17th and followed that up with an exceptional approach on the 18th, which had a tight flag, to set up a birdie.
“Four-under is a great score considering that I started in the morning when the conditions are tougher due to a lower temperature. My target was to hit the first five greens and I succeeded in doing that playing two-under on the stretch in the process,” said Sharma, 30.
{{/usCountry}}“Four-under is a great score considering that I started in the morning when the conditions are tougher due to a lower temperature. My target was to hit the first five greens and I succeeded in doing that playing two-under on the stretch in the process,” said Sharma, 30.
{{/usCountry}}Anirban Lahiri (70-68), who is playing in India after a long gap, did well by picking up five birdies and a bogey. The highlight of his round was the massive 330-yard drive on the seventh hole where he pocketed a birdie.
After playing a four-over-76 in the first round, Chandigarh’s Karandeep Kochhar bounced back with the day’s best score of 66. The effort placed him tied 18th at two-under-142. “In round one, I was nervous playing in the same group as Anirban for the first time. I was more at ease today. The goal was to shoot a six-under and get to a total of two-under,” said Kochhar, 19.
Among the other prominent names, Gaganjeet Bhullar (72) was tied 28th at even-par-144, SSP Chawrasia (74) was tied 38th at one-over-145 and Jyoti Randhawa (72) was tied 44th at two-over-146.