Feroz Ali Mollah
Kolkata, March 23, 2016: 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.
Press release
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