There was not much time to savour the round of his life -- Gurki Shergill had to just get on with the job. After shooting a sizzling six-under-par 66 in his opening round, the Pune pro was off to the first tee to start all over again within minutes.

Three-under after 12 holes on the rain-hit opening day on Thursday, Shergill, after a cup of tea, was on the course at 7.00 am to complete the round. He hit the straps straightaway, making birdies on the fifth, sixth and eighth holes for a flawless 66.

After a customary press-do, a few bytes for a television channel and a few bites of cookies for breakfast, Shergill, last in but first out for the second round, tried to relive his first-round heroics.

Clubhouse lead

The 29-year-old pro couldn't quite repeat that, but brought in a three-under-par 69 card. That was enough to give him the clubhouse lead on the second day of another truncated day's play in the Global Green Bangalore Open.

When the siren was blown a little past 6.00 pm, due to fading light on Friday, six groups was yet to complete the second round of the Rs 30 lakh event. Shergill, whose previous best was a 67 at his home course, took his four-day tally to nine-under-par 135, but more importantly, opened up a huge four-stroke lead.

Muniyappa second

Home boy C Muniyappa was in sole second place at five-under-par 139. Like Shergill, the local pro too had just enough time to grab a sandwich before heading off for his second round.

Another local pro, Rahul Ganapathy, shot his second successive 70 for a share of the third spot with three others on 140. A further stroke behind was the foursome of Feroz Ali, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Arjun Singh and Uttam Singh Mundy. Mundy and Vikrant Chopra brought in the best cards (66) in the second round.

Tied seventh in the Hero Honda Open West two years ago being his best finish, Shergill is confident of going all the way here. "Somebody will have to play hot golf to beat me this week," said the Pune pro Shergill before rushing off for lunch.

If not for three three-putted bogeys (4th, 10th and 11th) in the second round, the 29-year-old would have had a much bigger cushion going into the money-making rounds.

Shergill's other bogey came on the sixth hole, where he found the water on the right with a 3-wood tee-shot. But on an ideal day for golf, the 29-year-old had seven birdies in all to go atop the leaderboard.

"I have been playing well, but not putting things together. I'm getting into the 20s or missing cuts. Hopefully, I'll not let that happen now," said Shergill.

Barring two errors with his hitting, Muniyappa hardly put a foot wrong. Armed with a red-hot putter and a better knowledge of the new greens, Muniyappa got to work after a 70 in the morning.  A tenth-tee starter, the Bangalorean had birdies on the 14th, 17th (15-footer), 18th (30-footer), first and fifth holes. On the sixth, he found the trees on the left with his drive and duly dropped a shot.  His other blemish came on the par-3 eighth hole, finding the water with his 8-iron tee-shot.

Leading scores:

135: Gurki Shergill (66, 69); 139: C Muniyappa (70, 69); 140: Shamim Khan (70, 70), Rahul Ganapathy (70, 70), Feroz Ali (69, 71); 141: Uttam Singh Mundy (75, 66), Gaganjeet Bhullar (74, 67), Arjun Singh (73, 68), Gurbaaz Mann (69, 72); 142: SSP Chowrasia (70, 72); 143: Sanjay Kumar (71, 72).

Amateurs: 144: Arjun Lall (70, 74); 154: Krishna P (80, 74); 156: Darshan Veeraraghavan (78, 78)