Ahmed emerges sole leader

Ahmed oscillated from the ordinary to the brilliant before settling for a wonderful one-under 71 on another sweltering day at the Karnataka Golf Association.

With a total of 151, the 17-year-old who trains at the KGA course, now holds a solid six-shot lead over Aman Raj and club-mate Trishul Chinnappa, the later struggling with his game but very much within the title race.

Teeing off in hot mid-afternoon sun and a slightly wet course to contend with, Ahmed made fluctuating start to the day which pretty much remained the script until the end of his round. He started off with a bogey on the first but bounced back quickly, picking up shots on the second and third before dropping a shot on the fourth.

After a sedate journey over the next seven holes, Ahmed’s roller-coaster ride resumed and in more spectacular fashion. He bogeyed the 12th, birdied the 13th before double-bogeying the 14th. He then picked up a stroke on the 15th, dropped one the 16th, sunk his fifth birdie of the day on the 17th before ending his day in fitting fashion, firing a eagle on the par-5 18th.

Aditi Ashok brought home an improved card of 76, to take a four-shot lead in girls Category A&B.

Leading scores (after 36 holes): Boys: Category A&B: 145: Syed Saqib Ahmed (74, 71); 151: Aman Raj (78, 73), Trishul Chinnappa (75, 76), Shubhankar Sharma (73, 78); 153: Rohan Sharma (76, 77); 155: Manpreet Mann (79, 76), Kushal Singh (76, 79), Viraj Madappa (78, 77).

Category B: 155: Viraj Madappa; 158: Feroz Singh Garewal (80, 78); 159: Shiv Srinivasan (79, 80); 160: Nishant Bais (73, 87); 164: Samar Singh Sandhu (85, 79), Akash Modi (83, 81), Arjun Malik (83, 81), Jairaj Sandhu (80, 84).

Category C: 163: Tanvir Kahlon (82, 81); 168: Arjun Puri (87, 81); 169: Kartik Sharma (87, 82), 174: Karandeep Kochar (88, 86); 180: Jaiveer Singh (89, 91).

Girls: Category A&B: 156: Aditi Ashok (80, 76); 160: Raksha Phadke (81, 79); 168: Millie Saroha (83, 85); 177: Mehak Sharma (90, 87); 178: Nikita Arjun (92, 86), Amrita Sarna (91, 87). Category B: 156: Aditi Ashok; 237: Trisha Kumar.
Category C: 187: Shruti Shenoy (97, 90); 191: Suchitra Ramesh (93, 98); 200: Arushi Pandey (101, 103).

Category D (both boys and girls, after 18 holes): 84: Devansh Chadha; 89: Harshjeet Sethi; 92: Manav Bais; 99: Tanrika Singh, Krishiv Tekchandani.