Kapur placed tied-5th, Bhullar jumps to T-13
Defending champion Shiv Kapur added a steady 2-under 68 to his first round 66 to be placed tied-fifth at the midway stage of the Royal Cup here.
Kapur started the day two shots behind the leader, but now finds himself six behind as South Africa’s Justin Harding continued his blistering form by carding a second consecutive six-under-par 64.
Kapur was the best Indian in fifth while Gaganjeet Bhullar bounced back from an indifferent first round with a super 65 in the second and was now T-13 at 4-under.
Honey Baisoya (67-70) is T-21st, Khalin Joshi (70-69) and Viraj Madappa (70-69) are T-37th, Himmat Rai (68-72) is T-48 and S Chikkarangappa (72-70) and Rashid Khan (73-69) are T-62.
Jeev Milkha Singh (69-74) and Chiragh Kumar (75-68) await the finish of the second round, which will be completed on Saturday to know their fate as they lie at 3-over and T-79, and the cut could either be 2-over or 3-over.
At 5-over, Jyoti Randhawa (76-69) is sure to miss the cut.
“I was steady today. I think I played better than the score reflects. Overall I kept a lot of mistakes off the card. I would have liked to hole a couple more putts but that’s golf,” said Kapur.
The 32-year-old Justin Harding, who started the round oneshot off the lead, brilliantly stayed bogey-free for the second straight day at the Phoenix Gold Golf and Country Club. He fired another six birdies to lead by three shots on a 12-under-par 128 total.
AMANDEEP WINS SECOND TITLE
Amandeep Drall held her nerves to finish with birdies in the last two holes to become only the second player this season to win more than once on the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour.
Amandeep completed her double at Clover Greens as she added the title this week to the one she won earlier in the eighth leg at the same venue.
Even as she shot the third consecutive sub-par round, it was also the best card of the week at 5-under 67 to jump to win the 10th leg. Amandeep holed seven birdies, the maximum by any player in a single round this week. She also had two bogeys.
Neha Tripathi, the leader after 36 holes, failed to convert her lead into a win, as she shot even par 72 and tied for the third place with Gaurika Bishnoi (70). Both were tied at 3-under 213.
Trailing Vani by one shot at the start, Amandeep caught up on the first hole with a birdie, but with both Vani and Neha holing birdies on the second, she was again pushed to second. Amandeep dropped a shot on fourth to fall back further, but three birdies in a row gave her the lead .
PATTAYA: HOSUR: