Veer Ahlawat, one of the longest hitters on the domestic tour and often leads the ‘eagle-count’ for the season, moved within five strokes of leader on the second day of the $2.25 million Hero Indian Open at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram.
The day produced a course record of 10-under 62 from Norway’s Espen Kofstad — after a highly forgettable 81 on the first day — that erased the previous best of 64 by Shubhankar Sharma in 2018 edition of this premier event and by Arjun Puri in the Kapil Dev-Grand Thornton Invitational in 2022.
When play was suspended due to lightning, 46 golfers – including Shubhankar and Anirban Lahiri – were on course. The incomplete second round also meant that the projected ‘cut’ at 144 could not be applied.
For the record, Japanese Keita Nakajima extended his stay at the top following a successive seven-under 65 for a two-round tally of 130. He led Frenchman Romain Langasque by two shots and moved three strokes ahead of fellow overnight leader, Italian Matteo Manassero.
Ahlawat started from the 10th hole and found pars on the first seven holes. This was followed by three successive birdies before he erred in judgement and dropped a shot on the second hole of the course.
He responded with an ‘eagle’ on the fourth after his superb approach shot left him 10 feet from the pin. He collected two more birdies to improve his card from a first-day 69 to come up with a 66.
Nakajima’s measured putting earned him five birdies in-a-row on the front nine and placed him way ahead of the pack at -12. He added back-to-back birdies after taking the turn to move to -14 with seven holes to play. After two pars, the Japanese encountered an unforeseen trouble with his putting as he bogeyed thrice in succession to slip to -11 with two holes to go.
Again, on the testing 17th, Nakajima produced a stunning drive, a well-calculated shot from the fairway and birdied to get back the confidence. But his best came on the final hole. On the par-5, Nakajima reached the green on two and drained an ‘eagle-putt’ from about 20 feet to finish at -14.
Leading scores
130: Keita Nakajima (Jpn) (65, 65); 132: Romain Langasque (Fra) (66, 66); 133: Matteo Manassero (Ita) (65, 68); 135: Veer Ahlawat (69, 66); 137: Joel Girrbach (Swi) (67, 70); Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) (67, 70) and Jeff Winther (Den) (69, 68).
Other Indians (with sub-par scores after completing their rounds): 138: Karandeep Kochhar (68, 70); Manu Gandas (73, 65); 139: Gaganjeet Bhullar (70, 69); 140: Rashid Khan (71, 69); 142: Jairaj Singh Sandhu (72, 70).
