Rawat, Kumar, Sandhu share round two lead at Jaipur

Jaipur: Lucknow golfers Rajesh Kumar Rawat and Manoj Kumar share the round two lead along with Bangalore’s Bikramjit Singh Sandhu at the PGTI Feeder Tour event being played at the Rambagh Golf Club in Jaipur. The three golfers have identical two-day totals of four-under-136. Vishal Singh of Jaipur is one stroke behind the joint leaders in fourth place.


The cut was declared at five-over-145. Forty-two professionals made the cut for the third and final round scheduled to be played on Friday, June 20.


Rajesh Kumar Rawat (70-66) shot the day’s best score of four-under-66 to climb from overnight tied ninth to joint first. Rawat, who won a Feeder Tour event at Rambagh Golf Club back in 2011, had six birdies and a double-bogey on Thursday. He converted three 15-footers for birdies and chipped-in for another birdie on the sixth. Rajesh had only one blemish on his card, the double-bogey on the third, which came as a result of his ball getting plugged in the bunker.


Rawat, who finished fifth on the Feeder Tour Order of Merit last year, said, “I had a poor putting day in round one but today I took all my chances on the greens. Last year I had a poor season. I’m now looking to turn things around with a good performance here. I’ve won at this venue in the past and that gives me a lot of confidence going into the final round.”


Manoj Kumar (69-67), Rajesh’s city mate, also made a big move up the leaderboard with a three-under-67 in round two. He climbed from overnight tied sixth to joint first after a round that featured three straight birdies from the 12th to the 14th. Manoj had finished third on the Feeder Tour Order of Merit last year.


Bikramjit Singh Sandhu (66-70), the overnight joint leader, hung in there with an even-par-70 to stay in the joint lead on day two. He made five birdies and an equal number of bogeys.


“I was quite erratic with my tee shots today unlike yesterday when I hit it well. Nonetheless, it’s great to be playing in the leader group for the first time. It’ll be a true test of patience and temperament for me,” said the 25-year-old Bikramjit, who hails from the KGA course in Bangalore.


Vishal Singh (66-71) of Jaipur followed up his opening round of 66 with an ordinary 71 to slip from the joint lead on day one to third position on day two. He is currently one off the lead at three-under-137.


Akshay Sharma of Chandigarh, Delhi’s Suleman Ali and Faridabad golfer Ramesh Kumar are in tied fifth at one-under-139.