Samarth stays ahead of pack

Sama­rth Dwivedi dished out another round of solid golf to stay in pole position at the halfway stage of the Tata Steel Southern India Amateur Championship on Wednesday.

The UP lad, appeared completely at home at the testing Karnataka Golf Association, shot a brilliant three-under 69 to stay three shots ahead of Pratap Atwal (70) after totalling 137.Pukhraj Singh Gill (69) and Viraj Madappa (73) were bunched together at 142 in tied third with Jasjeet Singh a further stroke behind.

Smarting from the disappointing end to his otherwise scintillating round on Tuesday, Samarth, teeing off the 10th on the day, dropped a stroke on the 11th hole before immediately gaining one on the 12th. Two further birdies on the 14th and the 16th hole to go along a bogey-5 on the 17th, Samarth made the turn at one-under-par for the day. On the front nine of the course he hit birdies on the first, fourth and ninth holes but bogeyed the par-4 fourth hole to come in with a sub-70 score.

Leading scores (after 36 holes): 137: Samarth Dwivedi (68, 69); 140: Pratap Atwal (70, 70); 142: Pukhraj Singh Gill (73, 69), Viraj Madappa (69, 73); 144: Jasjeet Singh (72, 72); 145: Syed Saqib Ahmed (73, 72).