Karandeep, Kshitij maintain lead in Poona Open Golf
Chandigarh’s Karandeep Kochhar and Kshitij Naveed Kaul of Delhi continued as co-leaders for the second day in succession at the Poona Open Golf Tournament. Kochhar (64-66) and Kaul (64-66), the round one joint leaders by one shot, continued in the lead at the halfway stage with totals of 12-under 130 after they carded scores of five-under 66 in round two.
Tata Steel PGTI ranking leader Veer Ahlawat and Samarth Dwivedi too returned rounds of 66 to be tied third at 8-under 134. The cut came down at even-par 142 and as many as 58 professionals made the cut.
Kochhar, a 10th tee starter, couldn’t have asked for a better start to the day as he holed his chip from 35 yards for eagle on the par-4 10th. A couple of good shots and two long conversions then earned him birdies on the 13th and 16th. The bogeys on the 18th and the second holes did not derail his round as he rallied with a great recovery shot over the trees to claim an eagle on the seventh. Kochhar followed that up with a 15-feet birdie conversion on the eighth.
“Consistency was the key for me today. I stuck to my game-plan of hitting the driver everywhere. I had a great start with the eagle that really got the momentum going for me. The highlight of the round was the approach shot on the seventh that led to an eagle. I played to my gameplan by being aggressive there. My caddie guided me well on that shot,” said Kochhar.
Kaul drove the par-4 14th green for the second consecutive day to pick up a birdie there. He added another birdie thereafter but stumbled with a couple of bogeys on the 17th and third. Kaul’s purple patch began with his outstanding bunker shot on the fifth that led to a tap-in birdie. Shivendra Singh Sisodia posted the day’s best score of 64 to jump 35 spots to tied-5th at 7-under 135. The three other golfers bunched in tied fifth were last year’s Tata Steel PGTI ranking champion Om Prakash Chouhan (67), Shaurya Bhattacharya (67) and Aryan Roopa Anand (67).
