Noida: Kolkata lad Viraj Madappa shot a brilliant 5-under 66 to grab a 4-shot lead at the end of the second round of the IGU Uttar Pradesh Juniors being played at the Noida Golf Course here on Wednesday. Viraj’s two-day total stood at 139.
Feroz Singh Garewal returned a card of level par-71 to be placed second at 145. Yuvraj Sandhu and Jairaj Singh Sandhu shared the third place at 149 while Kartikey Vashist and Pukhraj Singh Gill were tied for fifth at 152. In the other category, it was Tanvir Kahlon who took a two-shot lead with a 36-hole total of 153 after he shot a round of 3-over par 74. Udayjit Bhalotia was second at 155 while Karandeep Kochhar was third at 156. Hassan Rahman was fourth at 157 while Jaiveer Singh was fifth at 158.
Viraj opened his account with a birdie on the opening hole and played some steady golf until he hit a road block where he lost a shot each on the sixth and seventh hole. However he quickly made amends with back to back birdie on the eighth and ninth holes to take the turn at 1-under. Viraj was on fire on the back nine as he not only he saved pars but went on to make two pairs of birdies each on the 12thand 13th and on 16th and 17th to submit a card of 5-under-67.
“After the first round, I realized my mistakes and worked on them as this course is a thinking course. Everything went according to the script today except on couple of holes. My hitting and putting both were excellent,” said the leader. “I intend to build on the lead and see if I can win the tournament,” he added.
Category A
139 Viraj Madappa (73, 66); 145 Feroz Singh Garewal (74, 71); 149 Yuvraj Sandhu (79, 70), Jairaj Singh Sandhu (72, 77); 152 Kartikey Vashist (77, 75), Pukhraj Singh Gill (75, 77); 155 Ritwik Jain (80, 75), Gurkirat Singh (76, 79), Raghubir Choudhary (75, 80), Prakhar Asawa (72, 83); 156 Tutul Ali (78, 78), Rajat Baisoya (76, 80)
Category B
153 Tanvir Kahlon (79, 74); 155 Udayjit Bhalotia (77, 78); 156 Karandeep Kochhar (81, 75); 157 Hassan Rahman (79, 78); 158 Jaiveer Singh (79, 79); 160 Arjun Puri (83, 77), Pratheek Nagaprasad (80, 80), Kartik Digvijay Singh (77, 83); 161 Arjun Prasad (80, 81), Kartik Sharma (77, 84); 162 Sarthak Chhibber (78, 84);166 Saptak Talwar (83, 83)