Jeev misses out

on the second propelled him further up the leaderboard.

Bajaj, who had a top-5 finish at the Asian Tour event played in Bengaluru in August, dropped his only shot of the day on the sixth. But he quickly came back with an excellent tee shot on the eighth that led to a tap-in birdie.

Bajaj said, “I hit the ball better and made more putts today as compared to round one. My friend and fellow professional Viraj gave me some sound advice on my swing before this event and that has really helped me.

“I’ve been patchy so far this season. My game’s there but I just hope to get more consistent. I need to believe in myself now. My iron-play is my strength at the moment.”

Bajaj made six birdies and a bogey in his round of 67, the day’s joint best, to move up 26 places to tied third. Akshay Sharma also took a share of third to make it two Chandigarh golfers in the top four.

Among the prominent names, Delhi’s Rashid Khan (71) was joint 13th at two-under-142 while Gurgaon-based Jyoti Randhawa (72) closed the day in tied 28th at even-par-144.

Dipankar Kaushal of Noida, the joint round one leader, slipped to tied 28th after a round of 76 took his total to even-par144. The star attraction of the tournament and local favourite Jeev (75-72) missed the cut by one stroke as his two-day total read three-over-147 and placed him tied 54th.