![\"Abhijit-Chadha\"](\"images\/golf\/Abhijit-Chadha.jpg\")
Kathmandu: Defending champion Abhijit Chadha sounded a warning with a thunderous round of 10-under 62 to jump to the top of the leader board at the half-way stage of the Nepali Rs 4.8 million prize money Surya Nepal Pvt. Ltd., Masters 2013 being played at the par-72 Gokarna Forest Golf Resort here on Thursday.<\/p>\n
After shooting a 5-under 67 in the opening round, the 21-year-old was 15-under 129 for the tournament and led by two shots from overnight leader S Chikkarangappa who signed in a card of 69 today and a vastly improved Shankar Das who brought in a score of 7-under 65 for a 36-hole total of 13-under par 131. Mohd. Dulal Hussain of Bangladesh, Ajeetesh Sandhu and Mohd. Sanju were all tied for the fourth place at 133.\n<\/p>\n
While the leader was basking in glory, Manav Jaini stole a bit of a limelight when he aced the Surya Nepal Pvt. Ltd., Signature Hole no. 16 to win a cash prize of Rs 10,000, an award for the first player to make a hole-in-one on this hole. Manav also earned Rs 20,000 instituted by PGTI. Incidentally this is the second hole-in-one in as many days with Moin Malak having holed the par-3 13th in the opening round. Manav signed in a card of 66 to be tied for the seventh place along with Om Prakash Chouhan whose two-day total stood at 134.<\/p>\n
Nepal\u2019s strongest contender Shivaram Shrestha added a 69 to his overnight 66 for a total of 9-under 135 that put him in the tied-ninth position along with Arshdeep Tiwana and Gaurav Ghei. Amongst the other Nepalese players, Toran Bikram Shahi who shot 1-over 73, Umesh Nagarkoti who brought in a card of 2-under par and Yelamber Singh Adhikari with a level par 72 were all tied for the 39th place with a total of 141 and made the cut.<\/p>\n
As many as 55 players made it to the money-making rounds after the cut was applied at a very steep 2-under par 142. Perhaps this is the lowest cut in the history of golf in India and Nepal put together! Mithun Perera, Harendra Gupta and C Muniyappa were amongst the notable players who missed the cut.<\/p>\n
Abhijit who began from the 10th and narrowly missed the birdie made amends by converting on the next two par-5s (11th and 12th) before making another pair of birdies on the 15th and 16th while also saving a stroke on the 18th to be 5-under at the half-way mark. Opening his back nine with a birdie, the tall lad from Chandigarh made consecutive birdies on the third and fourth and seventh and eighth respectively for a neatly compiled 10-under 62. \u201cI am playing good golf and today was exceptionally good,\u201d said the leader. \u201cThe greens are a bit tricky as some of them are fast and the others are slow. I did miss a couple of birdies,\u201d admitted Abhijit adding \u201cI would love to defend the title and would work towards it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Shivaram began on a solid note making consecutive birdies on the 11th and 12th before hitting a rough patch where he made a bogey on the par-4 14th. However, he nullified it immediately with a birdie on the next hole. The stocky golfer made two more birdies on his back nine third and ninth against a solitary bogey on the eighth to finish at 3-under for the day. \u201cAnything can happen in golf. I would try my best to catch up with the leader,\u201d said Nepal No.1.<\/p>\n
After shooting a 5-under 67 in the opening round, the 21-year-old was 15-under 129 for the tournament and led by two shots from overnight leader S Chikkarangappa who signed in a card of 69 today and a vastly improved Shankar Das who brought in a score of 7-under 65 for a 36-hole total of 13-under par 131. Mohd. Dulal Hussain of Bangladesh, Ajeetesh Sandhu and Mohd. Sanju were all tied for the fourth place at 133.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-latest"],"yoast_head":"\n
Top scores after 36 holes
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129 Abhijit Singh Chadha (67, 62); 131 Shankar Das (66, 65), Chikkarangappa S (62, 69); 133 Md. Dulal Hossain (68, 65), Ajeetesh Sandhu (65, 68), Mohammad Sanju (66, 67); 134 Manav Jaini (68, 66), Om Prakash Chouhan (70, 64); 135 Shivaram Shrestha (66, 69), Arshdeep Tiwana (65, 70), Gaurav Ghei (68, 67); 136 Chiragh Kumar (69, 67), Divyanshu Bajaj (68, 68), Rashid Khan (65, 71)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kathmandu: Defending champion Abhijit Chadha sounded a warning with a thunderous round of 10-under 62 to jump to the top of the leader board at the half-way stage of the Nepali Rs 4.8 million prize money Surya Nepal Pvt. Ltd., Masters 2013 being played at the par-72 Gokarna Forest Golf Resort here on Thursday.<\/p>\n