Feroz equals course record
to take lead

Feroz Ali scorched the Tollygunge Club course with five successive birdies on his closing holes to return an eight-under 62. This helped the local golfer etch his name as the joint-course record holder with Indrajit Bhalotia at the Rs 600,000 HT Pro-Golf 2001 Calcutta which began on Tuesday.

Bhalotia set the record way back in 1994 with a 62 at the Grindlays Open Pro-Am.

Feroz’s feat handed him a tally of eight-under 132 and a two-stroke lead over the field at the mid-way stage of the tournament.

The Hindustan Times sponsored event is the first leg of the Eastern Swing of the Hero Honda Golf Tour’s 2001-02 season.

Overnight leaders Indrajit Bhalotia (Calcutta) and Mukesh Kumar (Mhow) slipped to tied-second position at six-under 134 apiece. One stroke behind at fourth spot and four-under 136, lurked twice ‘Order of Merit’ winner Vijay Kumar (Lucknow).

Another Calcuttan Uttam Singh Mundy occupied the fifth position at three-under 137, while the duo of Rafiq Ali (Calcutta) and Shiv Prakash (Kanpur) were tied sixth at 138.

The cut was applied at 12-over 152, with 53 professionals making it to the deciding rounds.

Feroz Ali, who achieved instant fame after winning the Indian Open in 1998, has been off-colour for most of the 2001-02 season.

"I wanted to take a long break and work on my game. Too many errors had crept into my swing and my putting was completely off key," he said.

Hours of practice and a slight modification to his swing did the trick for him.

"I felt really good going into this tournament. In fact, yesterday, I predicted to a friend that I would card a seven-under. The course record comes as a bonus," said Feroz.

On Wednesday, Feroz was in his element, returning as many as ten birdies. But for dropped shots on the 15th and 2nd, the tenth tee starter would have actually played to ten-under.

"I was aiming at ten-under at the start of the day’s play but eight isn’t bad either," he said with a smile.

Feroz birdied the 10th, 11th, 14th, 16th and 1st before signing off in style with five successive birdies from the 5th to the 9th. For the record, he returned just 22 putts on Wednesday.

"The course conditions are perfect and it feels great. There is very little wind blowing and the greens are holding superbly," signed off the star golfer.

Mukesh Kumar had a very ordinary front-nine with bogeys on the 13th,16th and 18th overshadowing his two birdies. However, the current ‘Order of Merit’ leader put together a better back-nine score birdying the 3rd, 5th and 7th with a bogey on his closing hole handing him a second round one-under 69.

"I made too many mistakes too early in my round. This I believe has cost me the lead but I will be back with a bang tomorrow," said the confident Mhow pro.

Indrajit Bhalotia, considered one of the longest drivers of the ball on the Tour, looked a shade rusty on Wednesday. Despite birdying five holes he had to contend with two bogeys and one unfortunate double bogey on the 4th (the 13th of his round).

"I was hitting the ball well but the putts just failed to sink," said the 29-year-old whose round of one-under 69 included birdies on the 10th, 12th, 15th, 6th and 7th.

Sanjeev Mehra continued to lead the amateurs with his two-day tally standing at three-over 143. Mehra played to one-over 71 on Wednesday.

SCORES (after 36 holes): 132_Feroz Ali(70,62); 134_Indrajit Bhalotia(65,69), Mukesh Kumar(65,69); 136_Vijay Kumar(70,66); 137_Uttam Mundy(68,69); 138_Rafiq Ali(70,68), Shiv Prakash(68,70); 139_Rohtas Singh(69,70), Suleman Ali(69,70); 140_Pappan(72,68); 141_Yusuf Ali(73,68); 142_Amit Dube(74,68), Minky Barbora(73,69), Rezwan Ali(72,70), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia(71,71), Sanjay Kumar(70,72).

Amateurs: 143_Sanjeev Mehra(72,71); 156_Ranjit Singh(78,78)