Sandy maintains his lead

CHANDIGARH, Oct 13: The leader board saw few changes at the half way stage of the Second Samarvir Sahi Amateur Golf Championship at the Chandigarh Golf Course today. Yesterday’s leader, Sandy Lehal, carded a three over par 75, to increase his lead to four strokes from his nearest rivals Harjinder Kang, Simarjeet Singh and Saurav Bahuguna, who are tied at seven over par, 151, for two days. Recalling his round, Sandy said, “I had a disastrous start today, but recovered well to finish at three over par. My putting helped me to recover a few shots and I finished well, which gives me confidence for tomorrow’s round.”

With dropped shots on the 1st, 2nd, 7th, things improved for the better with a birdie on the par three, 8th. However, a double bogey on the 10th, where he was stuck in the left rough and another dropped shot on the 11th took him to five over. He then went to work, with birdies on the 14th and 17th and narrowly missed an attempt for another on the par four, 18th.

However, the best round of the day came from Delhi youngster, Suleman Ali, who played two over the course to improve his position considerably. “I putted very badly today, which effected my score. Yesterday, I spent some time on the practice green and it really paid off on the course today,” said Suleman.

Sheeraz Kalra, Abhishek Ahlawat and A P Gopal, played five over par today improving on their scores for yesterday. Karan Sachdev and Sanjiv Singh were also among the good scores carding six over par for the day.

The cut which is to be applied after today’s round is expected to go at 21 over for two days. The course has been playing considerably well and the greens, some of which are new, received positive feedback from most golfers.
Scores: 147 – Sandy Lehal; 151 – Harjinder Kang, Simarjeet Singh, Saurav Bahuguna; 152 – Suleman Ali, Jaideep Patwardhan, Jasjeet Singh; 155 – Gurbaaz Mann, Rahul Ganjee, Anitya Chand.