New Delhi, Dec 11 Seasoned Indian pro and international winner Ajeetesh Sandhu posted a top-notch five-under 67 in Round Two to open up a three-shot lead with a total of eight-under 136 in the inaugural edition of Vishwa Samudra Open 2024 at the Delhi Golf Club (DGC) here on Wednesday.
The Chandigarh-based Sandhu (69-67), who is playing at one of his favoured venues after a long time, signed for a bogey-free card on Wednesday to climb one spot from his overnight tied second place in the INR 2 crore prize-money event.
Gurugram’s Manish Thakran (69-70), who was also overnight tied second, struck a hole-in-one on the 12th during his round of 70 on Wednesday to move into sole second position at five-under 139.
Jamal Hossain of Bangladesh, the first-round leader, dropped down to third place at four-under 140 after he returned a 73 in the second round. The cut was declared at five-over 149. Fifty-one professionals made the cut.
The 27 players who hadn’t completed their first round on Tuesday, resumed play at 7 am on Wednesday while round two commenced simultaneously. Jamal Hossain ended up as the first-round leader by two shots.
Ajeetesh Sandhu, a 10th tee starter on Wednesday, was finding fairways and greens at will and did not seem to be in a tough spot at any point during his round. Sandhu rolled in putts from 10 feet and eight feet for his birdies on the 10th and 18th respectively. On the front nine, the 36-year-old Sandhu added three more birdies to his card thanks to his outstanding tee shots and iron shots.
Sandhu, who carded the day’s best score, said, “A bogey-free round at DGC is only possible when you hit a lot of fairways. I did that today. I was solid off the tee, had a good game plan in place and struck good iron shots. I found the spots that I had to. I was in the rough only a couple of times and that too just off the fairways. So, there were not enough opportunities to produce any heroics today. Overall, it was a solid day.
“Whenever you play well at a venue you go back there with good memories and it’s nice to play those good memories in your mind while you’re on the golf course. It becomes easier to execute shots. So, the familiarity with the DGC definitely plays to my advantage,” said Sandhu.
Manish Thakran, fighting to save his card in the final full-field event of the season, was going great guns till the 15th having made a hole-in-one, four birdies and two bogeys over that stretch. Thakran then made bogey-birdie-double-bogey on the last three holes to lose some steam.
Thakran said, “I capitalised on my strength, which is putting, over the first two days, and played some aggressive golf. Even the double bogey on the last hole today came as a result of my natural tendency to attack the pins in trying to gain a shot. It was a great feeling to make my first hole-in-one in tournament play. It’s just the kind of confidence booster I needed ahead of the last two rounds.”
Rashid Khan (71) was tied fourth at three-under 141 along with Dhruv Sheoran (69), Sudhir Sharma (72) and M Dharma (72). Another veteran, SSP Chawrasia (68) ended the day in tied 10th at one-under 143. PGTI Ranking leader Veer Ahlawat was a further shot back in tied for 16th place.
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