Feroz Ali Mollah makes merry on home turf, moves into three-stroke lead on day two

Rolex Ranking leader Feroz fired a second straight four-under-68 at the Rs. 30 lakh event to take his total to eight-under-136.

Sri Lankan K Prabagaran produced a three-under-69 on Wednesday to be next best on the leaderboard at five-under-139 along with Gurgaon’s Manu Gandas (70).

The cut was set at four-over-148. Fifty players made it to the money rounds.

Feroz Ali Mollah (68-68), who began the day as the joint leader, wasn’t deterred by his opening hole bogey on the 10th as he followed it up with some outstanding wedge-play to knock off four birdies on the back-nine. The only blip was another bogey on 17.

The 46-year-old Mollah, striving for his second title of the season, kept up the intensity on the front-nine by accumulating two more strokes on the second and seventh.

A confident Feroz, said, “I performed well with the wedges today and was consistent with the putter despite the two three-putts that led to bogeys. The bogey on the opening hole didn’t really bother me, as I knew with my current form birdies were just around the corner. Most importantly, I enjoyed myself out there.

“For me the highlight of the round was the approach on the ninth. After landing my tee shot in a tough spot of the left side, I hit an excellent hook around the trees that shaped from right to left and found the green thereby resulting in an unexpected par-save on the ninth.”

K Prabagaran (70-69) mixed five birdies with two bogeys to move up from overnight tied eighth to tied second. He made good use of his short-irons to set up a couple of tap-in birdies.

“I’ve not had a good result so far this season, so look forward to turning it around with a top finish this week. I was really thrilled to make a birdie on the third as I rate it as one of the tougher holes. I’ll look to target a score of two-under in round three in order to get myself in a good position ahead of the final round,” said Prabagaran.

Twenty-year-old Manu Gandas (69-70) scored three birdies and a lone bogey in round two to climb from overnight tied fifth to tied second.

Gandas said, “I made two long-range birdie conversions today and looked to stay in touch with the lead. The top-10 finish in Hyderabad last month, my best on the PGTI so far, raised my confidence levels and I’ve only been improving since then.”

Shamim Khan’s bogey-free 67 was the day’s best round. It lifted the Delhi golfer from overnight tied 30th to tied fourth at four-under-140.

Bengaluru’s Khalin Joshi (69) and overnight joint leader Shubhankar Sharma (72) of Gurgaon, joined Shamim in a three-way tie for fourth place.

Noida’s Amardip Sinh Malik, also the joint first round leader, slipped to seventh after his second round of 73.

Shankar Das shot a 68 to be the second Kolkata player in the top-10. He was tied 10th at one-under-143 along with six others including overnight joint leader Abhishek Jha (75) of Bengaluru, Chandigarh’s Ajeetesh Sandhu (72), the winner of PGTI’s last event in Hyderabad.

SSP Chawrasia (75-71), who began the tournament with a disappointing 75 in round one, immediately after the high of his Indian Open win, put together a much-improved 71 on Wednesday. He thus gained 26 spots in the second round, moving up from overnight tied 56th to tied 30th at two-over-146.