It needed a round of seven-under 65 from the Sri Lankan defending champion Anura Rohana to earn him a share of the lead with overnight leader C. Muniyappa at the halfway stage of the BILT Open golf championship in Gurgaon on Wednesday.
At the Classic Golf and Country Club, Rohana’s effort coupled with Muniyappa’s modest 71 saw the lead being shared at 10-under 134.
The cut came at two-over 146 leaving 57 professionals and two amateurs in the fray on the last two days.
Rohana made the turn at five-under, built with the help of three birdies followed by a 40-foot eagle on the ninth hole. Though the Lankan dropped a shot on the 10th following a wayward drive, he got his act right on three other holes for birdies.
Muniyappa, on the other hand, tossed away a good start for a modest finish. Starting with a chip-in birdie on the 10th, Muniyappa double-bogeyed the next by hitting out of bounds. He then found long birdie-putts from 15 to 25 feet on the 13th, 15th and 17th holes. On the back nine, Muniyappa bogeyed the first and double-bogeyed the third but recovered to stay in the joint lead after a brilliant 20-foot eagle putt on the ninth hole.
The scores: Anura Rohana (SL) (69, 65), C. Muniyappa (63, 71) 134; Shankar Das (71, 66), Arjun Singh (66, 71) 137; K. Harish (73, 65), Sudhir Sharma (68, 70), Abhijit Singh Chadha (68, 70) 138; Deepinder Singh Kullar (69, 70) 139; Abhinav Lohan (71, 69), Digvijay Singh (72, 68), Tyron Marc (71, 69) and Sanjeev Kumar (71, 69) 140.
