October 07, 2016: It is not often that we find an opportunity to report seven Indians decorating the upper echelons of an Asian Tour leaderboard. The Indonesian Masters this week is witnessing a rare Indian invasion as a host of golfers are doing well at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club. S Chikkarangappa is lying in a tie for third place, while Jeev Milkha Singh played through enormous pain, to end the second round in T7.
Chikkarangappa made six birdies and a lone bogey at the 14th in his score of 67. At 7-under 137, he is just one stroke off the pace set by Marcus Fraser and Kalem Richardson.
“I’ve been playing well. I’ve been playing solid throughout the year. I’m just looking for one solid week for myself and I think that’s on my way,” said a confident Chikkarangappa. “I’m really confident with how I’m hitting the ball at the moment.
I’ve been going through positive weeks. It is not only this week. I’ve been following up on my solid performances and I’m really confident with how things are going. Hopefully I can do something this week,” added the golfer from Bengaluru, exuding hope.
“It feels like a home tour this week. Anirban is here and we did some work on the range and helping each other,” said Chikkarangappa, offering credit to his senior. “I have positive energy when he is around me because I get the best advice from him.”
Overnight leader Gaganjeet Bhullar seemed to have suffered from fatigue finally as he conceded a 73 on Friday. The winner of the Shinhan Donghae Open is currently lying in T14.
Himmat Rai and Arjun Atwal shot 70 and 73 respectively to join forces in 19th position. In a remarkable bounce back,
Remarkable bounce back by Anirban Lahiri
Anirban Lahiri leapt 88 places into T25 with a spectacular 66 in the second round.
Anirban was in a precarious situation after a 75 in the first round left him in T113 at the end of the first round. But he showed enormous belief and determination to work his way back into the frame of reference.
I need to come back with a better attitude and feeling more positive. Yesterday, I couldn’t get the putts to go in. That put me down and I was dragging my feet. I wasn’t really happy with how I approached my round mentally.
“I was awake early this morning because of jetlag and Netflix was my friend. I had a lot of time to think about yesterday’s round and how to come out and approach it,” said a combative Anirban. “I’ve been working hard on my game but it has been inconsistent. I haven’t really been playing golf in the last five weeks
You can’t leave shots out there. You need to take all your opportunities because there are birdies to be made,” added Anirban, who is just coming off his first full season on the PGA TOUR. “Yesterday was a prime example of how you can get frustrated when you do that. You feel like you are dropping shots when you make par on some of these holes.”
Chiragh Kumar also rose 37 places, climbing into a tie with Anirban. He made a composed 69 on Friday, adding to a 72 in the first round.
Jyoti Randhawa is in T35 after adding 72 to his first round 70. Shiv Kapur suffered a disappointing day in the office, sliding 37 spots to end the day in T44. He made 75 today.
Rahil Gangjee recovered from T81 to T44 with a controlled 70 in the second round. Gangjee made 73 in the first round.
Abhinav Lohan made the weekend on the edge of the sword, with a pair of 72s. He was even par through two rounds, just above the cut line.
Abhijit Chadha (74) and Khalin Joshi (75) are just beneath the cut line, with the round still incomplete. Shankar Das is one over par, needing a couple of strokes from the final three holes of his second round, in order to try and make the cut.
Shubhankar Sharma will miss the cut after making 77 and 75 in his two rounds.
