Delhi lad equals RCGC record

Delhi lad Rashid Khan (in pic) equalled the Royal Calcutta Golf Club course record with a phenomenal nine-under 63 to jump to second place from overnight tied 14th on day two of the McLeod Russel Tour Championship on Friday.

Placed fourth on the Rolex Rankings for the PGTI order of merit, Rashid played with a subtle change in techique as he totalled 10-under 134 to emerge frontrunner to retain his Player of the Year title. Overnight leader Shubhankar Sharma had a round of three-under-69 to be just one shot clear of the 23-year-old Rashid at 11-under-133.

Chikkarangappa of Bangalore, who closed the day in third place at nine-under-135, continues to be another top contender for number one position in the 2014 rankings. Indian golfing great and local favourite Arjun Atwal came up with the day’s second-best score of 66 to rise from overnight tied 22nd to tied sixth at six-under-138.

Rashid (71-63), a two-time winner on the Asian Tour this year, followed up his sedate opening round of 71 with an incredible 63 to match the course record which was earlier jointly held by American Edward Fryatt and Arjun Atwal. Rashid produced a hat-trick of birdies from the fourth to the sixth, landing it within six feet on two occasions. This was followed by three birdie conversions from a range of 15 to 20 feet on the ninth, 10th and 13th. The icing on the cake for Rashid was the eagle-birdie combination on the 15th and 16th. 

Leaderboard (top 10) 1 Shubhankar Sharma 133 (-11); 2 Rashid Khan 134 (-10); 3 S Chikkarangappa 135 (-9); 4 Gaganjeet Bhullar, Shamim Khan 137 (-7); 6 Arjun Atwal, Shankar Das 138 (-6); 8 Rahil Gangjee, Chiragh Kumar 139 (-5); 10 Anura Rohana and Mithun Perera (both SL), Vikrant Chopra, M Dharma 141 (-3).