Udayan Mane races ahead at Tata Steel Karnataka Amateur

Syed Saqib Ahmed surged up the leaderboard with a scintillating bogey free round of six-under par 66 to bring in the best card of the day and be placed tied second alongside Yash Jindal who carded a three-under par 69 for the day for a gross of four-under par 140.

Last week’s Southern India Amateur champion Samarth Dwivedi was placed fourth a further two strokes behind at two-under par 142 followed by Jaibir Singh and overnight joint leader Jasjeet Singh at one-under 143.

Saqib, who began with an overnight score of two-over par 74, quickly got into top gear and was even par for the week after the 2nd hole itself with birdies on each of the opening two holes.

He gained another stroke on the Par 5 6th hole to turn three-under for the day and one-under for the week.

He gained a further three strokes with birdies on the 11th, 13th and 17th holes to finish a perfect round of golf of six-under 66.

Mane, meanwhile was his usual self beginning with a birdie on the opening hole followed by another on the Par 3 3rd where his tee shot fell pin high. A couple of dropped shots on the 4th and the 7th brought him back to even par for the day before he steadied the ship with birdies on the 8th, 14th and 17th to safely walk home ahead by three strokes at the end of round 2.

“I just got into the zone today and bar a couple of avoidable bogeys, I had a pretty solid round.” Said Mane. He added, “Saqib has just played a blinder out there and I hope to replicate it tomorrow to put myself in a stronger position to win this week.”

Top Scores (after 36 holes):

137 Udayan Mane (69,68); 140 Syed Saqib Ahmed (74,66), Yash Jindal (71,69); 142 Samarth Dwivedi (72,70); 143 Jaibir Singh (71,72), Jasjeet Singh (69,74); 144 Gagan Verma (74,70), Yashas Chandra (73,71); 145 Trishul Chinnappa (71,74), Nikhil Mohan (70,75)