Lahiri overcomes bad start to shoot record 12-under

On the second day of the Bilt Open,two-time defending champion Anirban Lahiri had the sort of day most golfers dream about. Despite his first day putting jitters he had almost six lip-outs on his way to a mediocre 1-under 71 and the bad mood that followed,Lahiri struck form as soon as he started Thursdays play ultimately finishing with 12-under 60 for the day tying the record best score by a player on any Indian course set by Liang Wen-Chong in the 2008 Indian Open. Now after returning a 13-under 131 after two days,Lahiri is once again in a position where he has been in so many previous rounds at this event atop the leaderboard.

After Wednesdays poor performance that saw numerous expressions of frustration from the 24-year-old,Lahiri said he forced his friends to play a game of monopoly simply to take his mind off golf. The board game must surely have helped as Lahiri shot two eagles,nine birdies against a lone bogey. In fact,just his second shot of the day was a 100-yard chip that found the hole for an eagle. What Lahiri says made the difference on Thursday was the aggression management that helped him settle down. Today I told myself to be calm whatever shot I hit, Anirban who holed putts as big as 30 feet on the 7th and 18th and holed the 13th from 100 yards for another eagle,said.

Starting from the 10th he went 7-under within four holes and then had two more birdies on the 16th and 18th . Three back-to-back birdies from the 3rd to the 5th followed on his front nine and after the 7th hole his 16th he had chance to go sub-60 on the 9th but his putt stopped inches short of the hole. I so badly wanted to shoot a 59,the last time I hit as low as this was a 62 in 2008. I guess it was time I had a dream round, he said.

Despite his heroics,Lahiri hasnt too much of a gap separating him from the pack. Indian Open runner-up Chiragh Kumar with a flawless 68 and 10-under par total is close as is Gaurav Ghei with two straight 68s and an 8-under total. Gaganjeet Bhullar,finally shirked off his last weeks tiredness from the PGA Tour Q-school and had a bogey-free 7-under round to jump from tied 51 to 9th . Tied along with him are also Himmat Rai and Shamim Khan 5-under 139. The cut came at 4-over and Manav Jaini was the most noticeable name to miss the halfway stage.