Mukesh stays atop

Sujjan cards 65 to climb to second spot

Chandigarh golfer Sujjan Singh fired in day’s second best card of 65  but overnight leader Mukesh Kumar still managed to hold on to the top position after a steady four-under-68 in blustery conditions in the second round of the PGTI Players Championship here at the Eagleton Golf Resort on Wednesday.

A determined Mukesh canned two short birdie putts early in the round on the 10th and 13th while he also dropped his first shot of the tournament as a result of a three-putt on the 12th.

The 50-year-old gained some momentum with a 15-feet birdie conversion on the 16th before driving the par-4 17th green to pick up another shot. As the wind picked up, Mukesh had a relatively quieter front-nine with eight pars and a birdie on the par-5 seventh where he hit the green in two.

Sujjan (68-65) seven-under for two rounds propelled him from tied seventh to second place in round two. Sujjan, 17th in the Rolex Ranking last year, got his round going with four consecutive birdies from the fourth to the seventh.

Armed with a new driver, the 35-year-old, a winner of three titles, was striking the ball well as he added four more birdies on the back-nine against just one bogey.

The Delhi duo of Shamim Khan and Kapil Kumar shared the third spot at 10-under-134. While Shamim improved on his first round 68 with a 66 on Wednesday, Kapil shot a second straight 67.

Gurgaon’s Shubhankar Sharma dropped three places from overnight tied second after his 70 that took his tally to nine-under-135. Local lad Udayan Mane, who was also joint second in round one, slipped to tied sixth at eight-under-136 as he carded a 71 on day two. Mane was joined by amateur and fellow Bengalurean Rahul Ravi and Sri Lankan Anura Rohana in a three-way tie for sixth.

Bengaluru’s S Chikk­arang­appa, the pre-tournament favourite, also fell from overnight tied fifth to tied ninth at seven-under-137 courtesy his second round 70. Chikka shared ninth place with another Bengaluru golfer M Dharma, Harish K of Mysuru and Noida’s Vikrant Chopra, who returned the day’s best score of 64.

Top scores (after 36 holes): 132: Mukesh Kumar (64, 68); 133: Sujjan Singh (68, 65); 134: Shamim Khan (68, 66), Kapil Kumar (67, 67); 135: Shubhankar Sharma (65, 70); 136: Rahul Ravi (A, 68, 68), Udayan Mane (65, 71), Anura Rohana (68, 68).