Fitzpatrick continues to rule the roost

Alex Fitzpatrick doesn’t make too much of the attention his surname attracts. And the chatty younger sibling of the 2022 US Open champion, Matt Fitzpatrick, was as casual about churning out a second straight 7-under 65 to go on top of the leaderboard in The Challenge at the Karnataka Golf Association on Wednesday.

After missing the halfway mark last week at the same venue, the Englishman, who believes in taking the rough with the smooth, has a one-shot lead over Spain’s Ivan Cantero Gutierrez who also carded 65 on the par-72 course.

“The game plan remains the same,” said Fitzpatrick who sits on a two-day total of 14-under 130. “I didn’t feel like I played awful last week but a few unlucky breaks, missed putts and a few bad drives meant that I missed the cut by one shot. But I’m glad I have another shot at it this week and I’m enjoying every bit of it.”

Alex started the day with a birdie on the first hole. But it was the difficult par saves on the third and the fourth holes that shifted the momentum for the golfer. “I pushed my approach shot on the third and it was short off the green by 6-7 yards. I made a putt from there and was left with a 10 feet putt. Rolling that in was super nice before making another six-footer on the fourth hole,” he explained.

There was no looking back after as Alex made an eagle three on the par-5 fifth followed by birdies on 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th. It was mostly percentage golf for the Sheffield resident to close out his round with seven pars.

Gutierrez, on the other hand, had seven birdies with a lone bogey on the 17th to take the second position ahead of Netherlands’ Lars Van Meijel who shot a 6-under 66 at third spot.

Kartik Sharma was the best Indian of the day after he carded a 5-under 67 to take his two-day total to 11-under 133. He is tied-fourth with Switzerland’s Joel Girrbach (69, 64) and France’s Frederic Lacroix (67, 66).

However, overnight leader Germany’s Michael Hirmer, couldn’t quite replicate his first day heroics as he finished with a 1-under 71 that had four birdies and three bogeys to go down the ladder to tied-10th.