New Delhi: Local lad Honey Baisoya made Delhi Golf Club more colorful just before holi by setting a tournament record on the second day of Toyota 7th NCR Cup. 15-year-old Baisoya carded a fabulous round of 9-under for the total of eight-under 136 to top the leader board while Sri Lanka’s N. Thangaraja shot four-under for the total of four-under 140 to finish second.
Noida’s Jasjeet singh jumped to the third position after shooting four-under for the total of two-under 142 while Chandigarh’s Angad Cheema, who was third yesterday, moved to the fourth place at 144. Yesterday’s leader Mohammad Wazir shot one-over for the total of one-over 145 to take fifth spot.
The winner of East India Amateur Championship, Baisoya fired consecutive five birdies on 1st to 5th, 8th, 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th. The most difficult hole for the young boy was the 10th where he drove his tee shot into the right bushes, played the second shot to the edge of the green, then chipped out for a par putt but missed out for a bogey from 6-feet from the flag.
Baisoya said, “The tees are set up quite ahead than usual and I always play with the tees further back but a couple of birdies in the beginning of the day made me forget about it. Though there were few challenges but my putting did wander today and I am quite excited to play with the challenge from strong contender Thangaraja in the next two days.”
Thangaraja, who was sharing the lead yesterday settled down with all the tough conditions when he birdied the 2nd, 11th, 14th, 16th and 18th while he bogeyed on the 4th. The No. 1 Sri Lankan visualize each hole before sleeping. "I was actually calculating the birdies that I can hit on this course last night and it came out that ways. The best part about my round was that only two of my birdies lipped out on 7th and 13th today and five lipped out yesterday which shows that my game has improved more than I expected. I hope it keeps improving in the two rounds and I go back home with the title.”
Portugal’s Pierre Alexis shot seven-over for the total of 13-over 157 to finish 20th. A half Belgium Alexis, who came to India for the first time in his life, seemed very happy with the difficult course conditions. Alexis said, “I have always been good in the last two rounds rather than first two days. I am lucky that I got a chance to play with Indians at one of the best courses of India. It doesn’t matter how I perform here, the important thing is I am going to take all good memories from India and would love to come here more often.”
In the team championship played concurrently, Oil India team has won after Ashbeer Saini and Honey Baisoya totaled 288. The runners-up team was PSPB represented by Jasjeet Singh and Gagan Verma at 293 while the third position was taken by Sri Lanka represented by N. Thangaraja and Sisira Pattrick for the total of 296.
