Gaurav Ghei in the lead at PGTI Players C`ship

Mewat (Haryana): Senior Indian golfer Gaurav Ghei grabbed the lead with brilliant scores of 65 and 69 on the second day of the PGTI Players Championship at Classic Golf Resort on Wednesday.

Manav Jaini of Delhi and Om Prakash Chouhan of Mhow were in tied second at seven-under 137 after the second day which saw 60, out of a total of 126 golfers, resuming their play after being stranded on Tuesday due to the heavy rain. The second round commenced after the completion of round one at 1 pm local time and only 60 golfers managed to complete round two on Wednesday. The remaining 66 golfers will begin their second round at 7:15 am on Thursday. Resuming at an overnight score of three-under from nine holes, Gaurav began with a bogey on the first but he soon reeled off four birdies on the trot from the second through the fifth holes and then added another birdie on the ninth to end up as the first round leader with a seven-under 65. Raj Randhawa (67), the overnight leader, was thus placed second after the completion of round one, while Vijay Kumar (68) was third. Jyoti Randhawa shared fourth position along with Manav Jaini, KPS Sekhon, Om Prakash Chouhan and Himmat Singh Rai at three-under 69. Ghei, a three-time winner on the Asian Tour, then began his second round and succumbed to a disastrous start as he went four-over after four holes. However, the 42-year-old staged a terrific comeback by going seven-under over the remaining 14 holes to finish round two with a solid three-under 69. "I enjoyed a good run of birdies on the second nine of the first round in the morning that helped me finish on top of the leaderboard," Ghei said. "I chipped-in for birdie on the second and landed it within 10 feet and two feet on the fourth and fifth respectively to set up birdie putts.” "I felt mentally drained towards the beginning of round two as I did not have much time between the two rounds. As a result I dropped as many as four strokes in the early stages of round two. But I did really well from there on and managed to pull it back to three under for the round," added Ghei. Manav Jaini and Om Prakash Chouhan fired identical scores of 69 and 68 in round one and round two respectively to be placed joint second at seven-under 137. Himmat Singh Rai and Shamim Khan were in tied fourth at five-under 139. PTI