Of the 126 golfers including 10 amateurs that teed off on Wednesday, 56 finished with under-par scores while eight produced even-par cards.[break]
Rashid Khan, Arshdeep Tiwana and Ajeetesh Sandhu all carded 7-under 65 to finish the day three shots behind the leader. Nepal No 1 Shivaram Shrestha, who led the local challenge in the tournament playing alongside tournament favorite Anirban Lahiri, shot a brilliant 6-under 66 to be tied for the fifth position along with three Indian golfers Mohd Sanju, Randhir Singh Ghotra and Shankar Das.
Defending champion Abhijit Singh Chadha, Harendra Gupta and Rafick Ali Mollah shared the ninth position at 5-under 67. Lahiri was tied for the 12th position along with eight other players at 68.
Chikkarangappa, who began his career as a ball boy about 12 years ago at Eagleton Golf Resort in Bangalore, played a bogey-free round on Wednesday. His ball striking was complemented by his putting on Wednesday. Chikkarangappa shot five-under 31 on both the front and back nines. He shot birdies on the first, third, fourth, seventh, ninth, 10th, 16th and 18th holes and also enjoyed an eagle on the 12th hole of par 5.
Meanwhile, Nepal No 1 Shreshta shot birdies on the third, fourth, sixth, 10th, 12th, 15th and 17th holes but suffered a bogey on the 16th hole.
“My putting was a bit of a worry, or else I could have ended up with at least three more birdies,” said Shrestha, who missed a number of small putts. “Playing with Anirban, I did learn a few things. He was unlucky on a couple of holes, otherwise he could have also produced a low card,” he added.
Another Nepali golfer Toran Bikram Shahi, who shot four-under 68 on Wednesday, is in the 13th position.
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