Sharma on top,
Shubhankar Sharma stayed atop the leaderboard on Day Two of the `1 crore TAKE Open golf championship at the Chandigarh Golf Club. Sharma, on two-under 70 in Round Two, was joined on six under par 138 by Kolkata’s Divyanshu Bajaj after the latter carded a five-under-67.
Akshay Sharma (71), another Chandigarh golfer, was tied third along with Noida’s Rahul Bajaj (67) at five-under-139.
The cut fell at two-over-146 and 53 professionals made the cut. Chandigarh’s Jeev Milkha Singh, a pre-tournament favourite, missed out by one shot.
Sharma (68-70) was in good ball-striking form just like the first round and managed to keep the errors out. The 21-year-old scored his first birdie on the eighth hole, and then went on to pick up two more before a missed opportunity from four feet cost him his only shot of the day.
The local lad, who won his first PGTI title at age 17 in 2014, said, “I hit it just as well as yesterday but would’ve been happier with a few more conversions on the greens.
“It’s not easy reading the greens here. But I should’ve read the lines better as I’ve played a lot of golf here. Now I just want to concentrate on my putting. If I hole a few more on the greens, I think I can really post a four to five under in round three since I’m hitting it well.”
Bajaj (71-67) zoomed from overnight tied 17th to joint first after firing the day’s best score of 67. He began by sinking three birdies from a range of 10 to 15 feet on the back-nine. His eagle