Delhi’s Shaurya Bhattacharya extended his overnight lead to four strokes on day two of the DP World Players Championship at Kolkata’s Tollygunge Club on Wednesday. Image courtesy DP World PGTI.
By Rahul Banerji
Shaurya Bhattacharya shot a tournament low score in the second round to extend his overnight lead in the DP World Players Championship at Tollygunge Club in Kolkata on Wednesday.
The Delhi golfer fired an 8 under par 62 to head the field by four shots at the Rs 1.5 crore event powered by Urbana, the DP World PGTI said.
Three-time DP World PGTI winner Bhattacharya (64-62), in his first domestic event of the season, produced a bogey-free effort including an eagle and six birdies on Wednesday to total 14 under 126.
Kshitij Naveed Kaul (67-63) returned a 63 that had an eagle, six birdies and a bogey to climb seven places to second on 10 under 130.
Sanjeev Kumar (65) and US golfer Jhared Hack (66), winner of the season’s first event in New Raipur, shared third place on 7 under 133.
DP World PGTI Ranking leader Honey Baisoya (65), winner in Delhi last week, was a further shot back in tied fifth place on 6 under 134 along with Pranav Mardikar (67).
The cut fell at 1 over 141 with 58 professionals advancing to the final two rounds.
Brisk start
Bhattacharya began with a 15-foot birdie conversion and followed up with an incredible eagle two on the Par-4 fifth hole where he holed his approach from 140 yards.
The 23-year-old then added five more birdies to his card as he picked up shots on all the three Par-5s. He also made a couple of quality up and downs to consolidate his lead.
“I’m delighted to have holed out from the fairway for the second time in the tournament,” Bhattacharya said.
“I did it in round one on the fourth hole from 110 yards and today on the fifth from 140 yards. I’ve done really well with the wedges this week.
“Recovered well from some tough situations today and the consistency off the tee continued. Importantly, I took advantage of the Par-5s by scoring birdies on all of them.”
Kaul began the day with a 50-foot eagle conversion on hole 10. A three-time winner at Tollygunge in his junior days, he almost drove the greens on the Par-4 14th and 15th for birdies.
Kaul added a bogey and four more birdies to round up his day’s efforts.
Mohammad Sanju and Divyanshu Bajaj were the two Kolkata-based professionals who made the cut, sharing 47th place on 1 over 141.
Also read: Bhattacharya is DP World Players C’ship early leader at Tolly
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