Trishul Chinnappa steals the thunder

Edited by Anand Datla

Kolkata, November 13: Local lad Viraj Madappa continued to dominate proceedings at the Tata Steel West Bengal Amateur 2014 with another bogey-free round of four-under par 66 at the Par – 70 Tollygunge Club here and maintain his three stroke advantage at the halfway stage.

On a better scoring day where as many as ten amateurs carded under par scores, Bangalore’s Trishul Chinnappa stole the show with a blistering seven-under par 63 to catapult himself into tied second alongside Samarth Dwivedi of Noida at a gross score of six-under par 134. Aman Raj, who hails from Patna, carded a second successive two-under par 68 to be placed fourth three strokes ahead of fifth placed duo of Pukhraj Singh Gill and B. R. Raja who are tied at one-under par 139.

Overnight leader Viraj, starting from the 10th tee, began with a par and followed it up with birdie 2 on the 11th hole where he hit his tee shot within four feet. That got him going for the day as he gained a stroke each on the Par 5 13th hole and Par 4 16th holes. A clutch putt for par on the 18th hole made sure he took the turn at three-under par for the day and eight-under par for the week. It was a similar story as yesterday on the front nine of the golf course as the 16 year old rolled in par putts for fun with the exception of the Par 5 7th hole on which he made his fourth birdie of the day. He closed out with consecutive pars for two round gross score of nine-under par 131.

The leader was understandably smiling and said, “I played another solid round without any mistakes which makes me pleased and will be looking to do the same over the next two days.”

Having teed off following Viraj, Trishul blasted himself off the blocks with an eagle 3 on the 10th hole when his 4-iron approach fell pin high on left from where he holed out the slight downhill putt. He would make another eagle on the Par 4 14th hole where his pitch shot from 70 yards landed just short from where the ball rolled in at just the right pace. He made his only bogey on the Par 4 16th and went under on the 1st, 2nd, 6th and the 9th holes to submit the best card of the day.

“Things certainly went according to the plan today and I’ll take the 63 any day.” Remarked Trishul.

Top Scores (after 36 holes):

131 Viraj Madappa (65,66); 134 Trishul Chinnappa (71,63), Samarth Dwivedi (68,66); 136 Aman Raj (68,68); 139 Pukhraj Singh Gill (71,68), B. R. Raja (70,69); 140 Pratap Atwal (72,68), Sunit Chowrasia (68,72); 141 Zubin Nijhawan (70,71); 142 Vikram Rana (72,70); 143 Hemendra Chaudhary (74,69), Dhruv Sheoran (74,69); Udayan Mane (72,71); 144 Syed Saqib Ahmed (72,72), Md. Wasil (72,72), Anant Singh Ahlawat (71,73)