Golf: Manu Gandas drives and chips his way to lead at Telangana Golconda Masters

Hyderabad: Defending champion Manu Gandas of Gurugram drove and chipped his way to an extraordinary 10-under 60 to set the course record and open up an imposing five-shot lead at 17-under 123 in the Telangana Golconda Masters at the Hyderabad Golf Course, on Thursday. Chandigarh’s Angad Cheema shot a seven-under 63 to be placed tied […]

Hyderabad: Defending champion Manu Gandas of Gurugram drove and chipped his way to an extraordinary 10-under 60 to set the course record and open up an imposing five-shot lead at 17-under 123 in the Telangana Golconda Masters at the Hyderabad Golf Course, on Thursday.

Chandigarh’s Angad Cheema shot a seven-under 63 to be placed tied second at 12-under 128 along with 17-year-old amateur Milind Soni (65) of Hyderabad. Soni, the lone amateur to make the cut, held on to his overnight joint second place at the Rs. 40 lakh event.

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Mysuru’s Yashas Chandra fired a hole-in-one on the seventh during his round of 65 to move into tied fourth at 11-under 129 along with Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (65). The cut was declared at even-par 140. Fifty-two professionals and one amateur made the cut.

Gandas (63-60), a three-time winner this season, strengthened his claim for his title defence with a second straight error-free round, thanks to some outstanding driving and wedge-play as he made 17 greens in regulation and nine out of 12 fairways to move up one spot from his overnight tied second position.

Gandas, who won his maiden title at last year’s event at HGA, picked up three birdies on the front-nine landing it within five feet on all three occasions. The 26-year-old was then on fire on the back-nine as he collected seven birdies including three on the trot from the 13th to the 15th.

Gandas landed it within five feet on four occasions and drove the green on the par-4 14th. Manu’s longest putt of the day came on the closing 18th where he holed it from nine feet to improve upon Kapil Kumar’s round of nine-under from day one.