Chowrasia surges ahead

Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia, the diminutive pro from Calcutta, strode like a colossus on the par-72 Aravalli Golf Club course when he shot his second successive six-under 66 to lead by two strokes at the end of the second day of the Rs 600,000 Tiger Sports Marketing Open, on Friday.

The slightly-built Chowrasia raced to 12-under 132 after two rounds and was followed by veteran Shiv Prakash of Kanpur, who shot a seven-under 65 and tallied 10-under 134 after two days. Defending champion Mukesh Kumar added a five-under 67 to his 69 yesterday and was eight-under 136. Overnight leader Vijay Kumar could only manage a par today and was fourth at 137, one stroke ahead of Delhi's Dinesh Kumar who made his second successive three-under 69 to be in sole possession of the fifth place at six-under 138.

The leapfrog of the day was made by Calcutta's Indrajit Bhalotia, who improved is first day's card of seven-over 79 by 13 strokes and made a six-under 66 to be placed tied for the 23rd place at one-over 145. Bhalotia was tied for the 64th place in the 72-man field.

The cut was applied at seven-over 151 and 51 pros made it to the money-making weekend rounds.

Chowrasia, joint-runner up at the 1999 Wills Indian Open, played much like he did during that memorable week. Starting the day with a dropped shot proved to be a lucky omen for Chowrasia, who had a similar start on Thursday. A splurge of birdies - second, third, fourth, fifth and eighth placed him at four-under at the turn. Birdies on the 13th and 16th propelled him into the lead.

"I still need to play two rounds of golf and so I wouldn't like to comment on my chances," said the modest Calcuttan.

Shiv Prakash played like a dream on Friday, and did not make a single bogey during the entire 18-hole journey. Currently ranked second in the Order of Merit, he started the day with a superb birdie by chipping-in from 20ft on the first hole. This was followed by birdies on the second and eighth on the front nine. On the back nine, the Kanpur-based golfer once again chipped-in for a birdie, this time from 25 ft on the tenth. Three more birdies followed on the 12th, 15th and 16th to hand him a day's score of 7-under 65.

"I putted better than yesterday", he said after returning 24 putts for the day.

Mukesh Kumar is hell bent on carding his first win of the season. The Mhow-based golfer had a par-par-eagle start to his round, with the eagle resulting from a driver-pitching wedge combination. This was followed by birdies on the sixth and the eighth. However, a missed two-footer par putt on the ninth handed the golfer a 3-under outward journey card. Mukesh started his back-nine by holing a fine 20ft birdie putt. A bogey on the 13th sandwiched birdies on the 12th and the 16th.

"I carded 31 putts today in my five-under. Yesterday, I scored 3-under with 24 putts. This shows the standard of my putting," said last seasons's Golfer of the Year.

Vijay Kumar was a shadow of the golfer he was yesterday. The Lucknow pro played his front nine to par and just when his game looked like picking up with back-to-back birdies on the 12th and 13th, his driver found the water hazard on the 15th to hand him a double bogey on the hole.

"I putted really badly today. With my putting switching on and off at will, I will have to depend on my hitting to do well in the remaining two rounds," said the winner of the season-opening Hindu Open.

SCORES (after 36 holes): 132 _ SSP Chowrasia (66,66); 134 _ Shiv Prakash (69,65); 136 _ Mukesh Kumar (69,67); 137 _ Vijay Kumar (65,72); 138 _ Dinesh Kumar (69,69); 139 _ Gursimran Singh Sethi (71,68), Shamim Khan (71,68), Basad Ali (68,71), Pappan (68,71); 140 _ Gaurav Ghei (71,69); 141 _ Mohammed Islam (72,69), Rohtas Singh (72,69), Ranjit Singh (70,71), Vishal Singh (68,73); 142 _ Rafiq Ali (72,70), Rajesh Chowdhary (72,70), Sanjay Kumar (Del) (69,73)

Amateurs: 158 _ GS Parmar (79,79); 171 _ HK Singh (83,88); 189 _ Anand Mehta (90,99)