Shubhankar races to 2nd, Grillo in lead after Day 2 of Indian Open

Shubhankar SharmaPretournament favourite Shubhankar Sharma of India delivered a courserecord score of eightunder 64 while Emiliano Grillo of Argentina carded a 68 to take the lead in round two of the Hero Indian Open in Gurugram on Friday Shubhankars stellar show vaulted him 55 places to the second place at sevenunder 137 twoday total at the Gary Player layout of the DLF Golf and Country Club Grillo meanwhile leads by a comfortable four shots on 11under 133 totalThe 21yearold Indian lying tied 55th after round one broke the previous course record of 65 held jointly by Grillo who achieved the number in round one on Thursday as well as Malaysian Gavin Green who fired the score at the last edition of the Indian Open The topranked Indian golfer who was fiveover through his first nine holes in round one staged a remarkable fightback to rise into contention by going 12under over the next 27 holesShubhankar the highestranked player in the field at world No66 was twounder for the day when he made the turn on Friday but then put his foot on the pedal on the backnine with six birdies which included a tapin on the 10th and a 30feet conversion on the 12th Shubhankar who had a tied ninth finish at last weeks WGC event in Mexico City said Todays round will definitely rank up there as one of my most significant achievements especially when it is played at this course This is a tough course and it is not easy to go low here Im very happy with the way I played I shot a few low numbers in my career and this one is right in my top fiveI know I had to get a good start I normally try to do as best as I can on the front nine I did my best but it was still twounderpar But I was hitting it well even though the back nine is tougher than the front nine I knew I could still make birdies The 25yearold Grillo who started on the 10th hole got off to a great start with consecutive birdies on holes 11 and 12 Grillo scored three more birdies and one bogey before ending his roundSpains Pablo Larrazabal 71 and Englands Andrew Johnston 66 are a shot behind Shubhankar in tied third while four golfers including South Africas Keith Horne 73 and Thailands Panuphol Pittayarat 70 are currently in tied fifth on 139 Khalin Joshis errorfree 68 ensured he was the second Indian in the top10 on day two Joshi was in tied ninth at fourunder 140Nine out of the total 144 golfers could not finish their second round on Friday due to the fading light The cut is likely to be applied at threeover 147 Khalin Joshi 7268 who had missed the cut at the Indian Open by one shot for the last three years in succession too made significant ground with his 68 on Friday The score took him from tied 35th in round one to tied ninth on day twoAjeetesh Sandhu the best Indian on day one carded a 76 in round two to slip to tied 31st at evenpar144 Anirban Lahiri 73 the 2015 champion was a further shot back in tied 35th Teenaged amateur Kshitij Naveed Kaul twoover146 as well as Karandeep Kochhar another teenager and Udayan Mane both with totals of threeover147 will also make the cut among the IndiansThreetime Indian Open champion Jyoti Randhawa who was at an evenpar total through 15 holes when play was suspended is likely to be the eighth Indian to make the cut Arjun Atwal and Shiv Kapur both with totals of fourover 148 are likely to miss the cut The other prominent Indian names who will miss the cut are defending champion SSP Chawrasia sevenover 151 Gaganjeet Bhullar nineover 153 and Jeev Milkha Singh 20over 164Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever