May 10, 2018: Homegrown talent Zamal Hossain Mollah kept up the local cheers when he signed for a commendable six-under-par 65 to share the halfway clubhouse lead with Malcolm Kokocinski of Sweden at the weather-disrupted AB Bank Bangladesh Open on Thursday.
Starting the day four shots off the pace, Zamal fired eight birdies against a double-bogey under windy conditions to move atop the leaderboard with Asian Development Tour (ADT) Order of Merit leader Kokocinski, who returned with a 66, at the Kurmitola Golf Club.
The leading duo holds a one-shot advantage on matching eight-under-par 134s while Thailand’s Suttijet Kooratanapisan marked the low round of the week when he carded a flawless 64 to sit in second place at the US$300,000 event.
Asian Tour Qualifying School graduate Ben Campbell of New Zealand, American Paul Harris and Divyanshu of India shared fifth place on 136s following respective rounds of 66, 66 and 69 in the AB Bank Bangladesh Open, which is celebrating its fourth consecutive edition on the Asian Tour this week.
Divyanshu Bajaj added two-under-par 69 in the second round to his first round score of four-under-par 67 to share the fifth place with other two golfers. Divyanshu is trailing the leaders with just two shots off the pace.
“The conditions were really tough out there. The winds were swirling but I managed to stay composed and had a good finish with two straight birdies on the eighth and ninth. I am putting it well. I hope I can continue to putt the way I did for the next two rounds. We will see how it goes.
I am really tired. It has been a long day but I will head back and get some good rest for tomorrow. I just need to play my own game for the next two days and I should be fine”, said Divyanshu.
Chinese Taipei’s Wang Wei-lun, who returned to grab a share of the opening round lead on Thursday morning, slipped five shots off the pace following a battling second round 74.
Play was suspended at 10.27am local time due to thunderstorm before resuming two and a half hours later. It was later called off for the day at 6.13pm due to fading light.
A total of 72 players will resume their second rounds at 6.20am on Friday with the third and penultimate round slated to start not earlier than 10.15am.
Asian Tour Release
