Digvijay one shot off the lead at Jakarta

By IANS

Jakarta : Digvijay Singh shot a brilliant bogey free six-under 66 Friday as he moved up to shared fourth place, but one shot behind the three leaders as darkness once again hit the proceedings with a good number of players yet to finish their second round in the Pertamina Indonesia President Invitational golf.


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Chinese Taipei’s Lu Wei-chih fired a sizzling 10-under-par 62 to get into a three-way tie for the clubhouse lead with Neven Basic (67) and Anthony Kang (65). They were all at 12-under for two rounds and Digvijay was one behind them.

Harmeet Kahlon, six under in first round, was even for three holes when play was halted. He was 11th provisionally. Gaganjeet Bhullar was two-under through six holes and four-under for the tournament. Naman Dawar also ensured weekend action as he played a fine four-under bogey free 68 that saw him three-under for the tournament and in tied 40th place.

Arjun Singh had an eagle in the six holes he got to play to reach three-under, Gurbaaz Mann (76) and Vikrant Chopra (73) were at one-under and tied 63rd and on the edge. Amandeep Johl (70) was even for two rounds, as were Firoz Ali, who had played 12 holes in second round and Vivek Bhandari who was three-under after nine. Chiragh Kumar (72) was at three-over and unlikely to get into weekend action. Uttam Singh Mundy (74) was four-over for two rounds and Amardip Malik was five-over after 12 holes in second round and will surely miss the cut.

Lu, who is hoping to improve on his 70th ranking on the Asian Tour’s UBS Order of Merit, has been enjoying solid form in the two weeks as he blasted 10 birdies for a 12-under-par 132 at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Damai Indah Golf – BSD Course. While Lu matched the course mark held by Paul Friedlander from Swaziland in 1997, his score will not be considered an official record as the preferred lie ruling was in operation which allows players to lift and clean their balls on the fairways.

The 28-year-old Lu is playing in his 21st straight event this year as he was tied alongside rookie from Australia Neven Basic who carded a 67 together with American stalwart Anthony Kang who improved with a 65 in the US$350,000 Asian Tour event. India’s Digvijay Singh was a stroke behind as he shot a 66 in lone fourth position while fifth place New Zealander Mark Brown fired a similar score for a 136 total.

After a 67 in the first round, Ryder Cup star Lee Westwood was one over after the opening hole before play was suspended at 12:31pm due to lightning. Play resumed at 3:00pm but darkness forced a second suspension at 4:55pm as Westwood ended the day on three under after nine holes.

A total of 77 players will resume the second round at 6:30am on Saturday.

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