[1]Delhi’s Manav Jaini shot a five-under-67 in the second round to take the lead at the PGTI Players Championship at the Golden Greens Golf & Country Club in Gurgaon.
After Wednesday’s round, Jaini totalled nine-under-135.
The second place was shared by Pune’s Moinuddin Malak, Delhi’s Rashid Khan, Ranjit Singh of Chandigarh and Abhinav Lohan of Faridabad with six-under-138. Fifty-one of the participating golfers made the cut at three-over-147.
Jaini (68-67) followed up his first round score with a bogey-free 67 on Day Two to take centre-stage. He started from the 10th tee and scored his first birdie on the 14th where he two-putted from 45 feet.
Jaini followed it up with another going up and down from the bunker on the 18th. The 28-year-old sank birdies on the first and second as well to make it three birdies in a row.
On the first, he converted a 15-footer and chipped it to within three feet on the second. A winner of the PGTI Championship in 2011, Jaini’s seven-iron approach shot landed within three feet on the eighth hole that earned him the final birdie of the day.
“My iron-play was good today. I hit it extremely close on a few occasions and made some decent chip-putts. I made a brilliant par-save on the 12th where I hit it within 15 feet from 100 yards out and sank the putt. The par-save on the 12th got my round going. I’ve played equally well on the first two days. The only disappointment in round one was that I dropped a couple of bogeys that could’ve easily been avoided.”
Malak (70-68) fired a 68 that featured an eagle, three birdies and a bogey. He was joined by Khan (67-71), Singh (68-70) and Lohan (70-68) in second place.
Meanwhile, M. Dharma of Bengaluru, Sri Lanka’s Mithun Perera, Australia’s Kunal Bhasin and the Kolkata duo of Divyanshu Bajaj and Md. Sanju are joint sixth at five-under-139.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/jainijpg-782