Kolkata: Delhi's Honey Baisoya recovered well after a slow start to fire a second straight six-under-64 that gave him the halfway lead at the inaugural Bengal Open Golf Championship here on Wednesday.
Baisoya, a six-time winner on the PGTI, was one clear of the rest of the field at 12-under-128.
It was a crowded leaderboard as there was a four-way tie for the second spot at 11-under-129 between Delhi's Rashid Khan (64), Bangladesh's Badal Hossain (66), Chandigarh's Karandeep Kochhar (66) and Faridabad-based Karan Pratap Singh (67). The day's best round of 63 was posted by Delhi's Himmat Rai, Bengaluru's Trishul Chinnappa and Sri Lankan N Thangaraja. While Himmat occupied tied sixth place at 10-under-130, Trishul was tied ninth at nine-under-131 and Thangaraja was tied 20th at six-under-134.
The cut went at two-under-138 and 51 professionals made the cut.
Honey Baisoya (64-64) jumped five spots from his overnight tied sixth thanks to his dogged 64. Honey, who won his last event about a year back, dropped an early bogey on the first where his drive found the trees. The 22-year-old Baisoya was one-over through four holes before he charted a splendid recovery with consecutive birdies on the fifth, sixth and seventh.