Kolkata: Kolkata’s Feroz Ali Mollah capitalized on the familiar conditions at his home course, the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC), to steer three shots clear of the field at the halfway stage of the inaugural Kolkata Classic. 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.