Aman Raj musters five stroke lead

March 12, 2014: Despite shooting one-over par 73, Aman Raj managed to widen the gap on the leader board with a five stroke lead over his nearest rival Udayan Mane at the end of the half-way stage of the Delhi-NCR Cup being played at the par-72 Delhi Golf Club here on Wednesday. The lad from Patna had a total of 1-under 143 for two rounds.

Simarjeet Singh who had made a hole in one in the opening round, brought in the day’s best card of 2-under 70 to jump to the third position at 149 along with Pratap Atwal and Ajit Rawat. Feroz Singh Garewal was tied at the sixth position at 150 along with L Selvadurai. Varoon Parmar, Kurush Heerje and BR Raja brought up the rear of the top-ten with a total of 152 for a tied eighth position.

[highlight] The course is still playing tough. I am happy to be sitting on a five shot cushion, said Aman [/highlight]

The cut was applied at 20-over where 52 players made the cut including the lone lady golfer and India’s No.1 player Gauri Monga. Meanwhile Udayan Mane and Samarth Dwivedi won the Team event which was played over two rounds with a total of 303.

Aman looked set for an excellent round when he began with a birdie on the par-5 opening hole and even while he flirted with birdies, he made sure he did not commit any mistakes until the par-3 seventh where he made a bogey and also lost a stroke on the par-4 ninth. On the back nine, a bogey on the par-4 11th set him back a bit but however with a birdie on the par-5 14th, Aman seemed to be back on track. A bogey on the 17th was followed by a birdie on the finishing hole as the young lad signed off with a 73.

“The course is still playing tough. I am happy to be sitting on a five shot cushion,” said the leader who is just in his second year on the IGU National Tour.

Top scores (after 36 holes)

143 Aman Raj (70, 73); 148 Udayan Mane (74, 74); 149 Simarjeet Singh (79, 70), Pratap Atwal (76, 73), Ajit Rawat (74, 75); 150 Feroz Singh Garewal (75, 75), L Selvadurai (72, 78); 152 Varoon Parmar (81, 71), Kurush Heerjee (78, 74), BR Raja (75, 77); 154 E Naresh (81, 73), Arshad Ali (79, 75), Md. Saleem (77, 77)

Team

303 Udayan Mane & Samarth Dwivedi; 304 HS Kang & Pratap Atwal; 305 Simarjeet Singh & Vikram Rana; 314 Ankur Chadha & Feroz Singh Garewal, Saurabh Bahuguna & Jaibir Singh