March 11th 2015, New Delhi, India: Viraj Madappa came within a whisker of breaking the course record as he produced a scintillating round of eight-under par 64 to shoot up the leaderboard and lead at the halfway mark of The Delhi NCR Cup 2015 being played here at the Par – 72 Delhi Golf Club.
Local lad Tapendra Ghai carded a two-under par round to climb up to second place five strokes behind the leader tied with another local Yash Jindal at even-par 144. Overnight leader Gunvir Rana and Samarth Dwivedi are placed tied fourth a further stroke behind as both finished over par for the day.
Viraj Madappa |
Viraj’s round was laced with as many as ten birdies and was dented a bit by the double bogey 6 on the 13th hole. He complemented his opening birdie with another on the third hole as he let his momentum strike perfect approaches on the sixth, eighth and the ninth holes to go out at a phenomenal five-under par for the day and two-under for the week. He began the back nine as he began the front with a birdie and landed within inches on the Par 3 12th hole. His only mistake of the day was catching a flyer on the 13th to drop two strokes, one of which he swiftly recovered on the Par 5 14th hole. He had a birdie-birdie finish to cap a memorable round on a wintry day here in Delhi.
The young lad from Kolkata, clearly delighted said “It is not something that you manage everyday where almost everything goes perfect so I’ll take this”. He added, “From my first drive I was feeling pumped for what lay ahead through the round and was determined to make up for the disappointing round yesterday.”
Junior India international Saarthak Chhibber and Jaibir Singh of Bengaluru shot the other red digits of the day with rounds of two-under par 70 and one-under par 71 respectively on a better scoring day where 50 players made the halfway cut.
Among the ladies, Gurgaon’s Tvesa Malik carded a one-over par 73 to take her total to seven-over 151. Delhi’s Seher Atwal shot a three-over par with three birdies to trail Tvesa by three strokes.
Top Scores (after 36 holes):
139 Viraj Madappa (75,64);
144 Tapendra Ghai (74,70), Yash Jindal (72,72);
145 Samarth Dwivedi (70,75), Gunvir Rana (69,76);
146 Saathak Chhibber (76,70);
147 Aman Raj (75,72), Anshul Patel (75,72), Gagan Verma (74,73), Simarjeet Singh (73,74)
