March 29, 2019: Julian Suri roared home in 30 to open up a three shot clubhouse lead on day two of the Hero Indian Open.
The American entered the second round at DLF Golf and Country Club with a share of the overnight lead but played his first nine holes in one over to slip a shot behind fellow first round leader Stephen Gallacher.
He then produced a stunning run of scoring, picking up six shots in as many holes to get to ten under with a second consecutive 67 and lead the way from England’s Callum Shinkwin.
“I hit it really well the whole day and I just tried to free it up a little bit on the second nine with my putting. I putted with more feel instead, which is how I have usually been putting, and I gave myself a lot more chances,” said the American, who is of Indian descent.
The tournament invite carded the only bogey free round of the week so far with a 65 as he looks to regain his playing privileges after finishing 119th on last season’s Race to Dubai Rankings Presented by Rolex.
Swedes Jens Dantorp and Robert Karlsson were at five under in the early stages of their rounds, a shot clear of Finn Mikko Korhonen and Scot Richie Ramsay, who were both in the clubhouse.
Later starters Gallacher, Scott Hend, Masahiro Kawamura, Pablo Larrazábal and Shubhankar Sharma were also six shots off the lead.
Suri is playing just his second event of the season after undergoing surgery on an abdominal hernia and is 24 shots better off than he was after 36 holes at this event in 2018, when he missed the cut after a 76-82 start.
The 27-year-old started his round with six pars and that was enough to keep him in a share of the lead but a bogey on the 16th meant that Gallacher was alone at the top without hitting a shot.
After an opening 72, Shinkwin was making progress with gains on the second and third and two more on the eighth and ninth had him within one at the turn.
Suri moved back into the lead with a birdie at the first and Shinkwin joined him at the 12th but the 2017 Made in Denmark champion then produced his stunning run of scoring.
He chipped in at the third and put his second on the par five next to 12 feet before rolling in his eagle putt.
His lead was just two shots as Shinkwin birdied the very difficult 14th but a 15 foot left to righter on the par three fifth had him three ahead.
An approach to three feet on the next made it six shots gained in six holes and Suri was four clear and the first man this week into double figures.
He dropped a shot on the next after finding trouble right off the tee and failing to get up and down but he was let off as Shinkwin missed very good birdie chances on the 16th and 17th.
The 25-year-old did make a birdie on the last after getting on the green at the par five in two but Suri drove the par four ninth to get back to ten under and lead by three.
Korhonen bookended birdies on the 15th, 18th, fourth, sixth and eighth with bogeys on the tenth and ninth in a 69, while Ramsay carded a 71 containing five birdies, two bogeys and a double.
Italian Lorenzo Gagli matched Shinkwin’s 65, carding an eagle, six birdies and a bogey to sit in the clubhouse at three under alongside Spaniard Nacho Elvira and Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger.
Om Prakash Chouhan won himself a return business class trip to Munich for two nights including a trip to BMW Welt and a BMW DRIVE experience after he made a hole-in-one with a six iron on the fifth.
But that was not the only ace of the day, Daniel Nisbet holed a four iron on the third to make it seven holes-in-one this season on the European Tour.
Source: European Tour
