Thursday, February 5, 2015

Shubhankar Sharma dominates day two at Panchkula

Panchkula, Haryana, February 4, 2015: Shubhankar Sharma of the DLF Golf & Country Club, Gurgaon, took a massive five-shot clubhouse lead on day two of the PGTI Players Championship presented by Panchkula Golf Club. Shubhankar followed up his first round of three-under-66 with a brilliant five-under-64 in the second round to take his total to eight-under-130. Angad Cheema of Panchkula was placed second at three-under-135.

The rain-delay on Tuesday meant the first round could only be completed by 10 am on Wednesday. This in turn led to the partial completion of round two on Wednesday. When play was suspended due to fading light at 6 pm on Wednesday, only 81 out of 120 players had completed round two. The remaining 39 players, including the likes of day one clubhouse leader Arjun Singh, will now complete their second round on Thursday morning. The cut will be declared after the completion of the second round on Thursday morning. The third round will commence thereafter.

Shubhankar Sharma was three-under through 16 holes in round one when play was suspended due to fading light on Tuesday evening. Sharma began the tournament in style as he made an eagle-two on the par-4 11th thanks to an outstanding tee shot that stopped two feet from the pin. He added two more birdies and a bogey to his card in round one to be joint first round leader along with Mukesh Kumar at three-under-66. Shubhankar was once again in sublime form in round two on Wednesday as he produced an amazing eight birdies against three bogeys. He sank two birdie putts from a range of 12 to 20 feet and landed it within a foot on two occasions to set up birdies.

“I started the week on a positive note with an eagle on the 11th, my second hole of the tournament, where I narrowly missed a hole-in-one. I did well in round one despite the tough conditions thanks to my excellent hitting. I went one better in round two as I managed to capitalize in the relatively easier course conditions on Wednesday. The wind had died down, the sun was out and it wasn’t even as cold today. The pins were also more accessible in round two,” said Shubhankar, whose been nursing a minor injury on his right wrist for the last few days.

He added, “It’s important to begin the year with a good performance here at the season-opener. I’ve done well so far with two low scores. I feel I can carry forward the good form from last year. The course is playing very different from when I played here last in 2013. I therefore had to make the necessary adjustments.”
    
Angad Cheema followed up his first round one-over-70 with a four-under-65 in round two to end the day in second place at three-under-135. Cheema, who recently earned his maiden Asian Tour card, came up with eight birdies, a bogey and a triple-bogey in the second round at his home course.

Round one joint leader Mukesh Kumar of Mhow returned a one-over-70 in round two to slip into tied third place at two-under-136 along with Delhi’s Shamim Khan and Sri Lankan N Thangaraja.   

Day 2 leaderboard (only 81 players out of 120 completed Round 2):
130: Shubhankar Sharma
135: Angad Cheema  

136: Shamim Khan, N Thangaraja, Mukesh Kumar

PGTI Press release

No comments:

Post a Comment