Gangjee, Kapur raise hopes of an Indian party at Kensville

Ahmedabad: There was a lot to rejoice for the Indians as Rahil Gangjee (69) and Shiv Kapur (68), both of whom are making their debut on the Challenge Tour, shared the lead at the midway stage of the Gujarat Kensville Challenge.

The globe-trotting duo is at seven-under 137 after 36 holes at Kensville Golf and Country Club, near on Friday. The Indian duo was closely followed by an European trio comprising, two Englishmen, Gary Lockerbie (69) and Seve Benson (68) and a Swede, Jens Danthorp (68) all of whom are at six-under 138 in tied third place. Three others, German Max Keiffer (71), Australian Daniel Gaunt (68) and American Dodge Kemmer (72) were tied sixth at three-under 141. The cut came at four-over 148 and the casualties included Asian tour winner Himmat Rai (77-74), John Parry (73-76), Daniel Vancsik (76-75), Chiragh Kumar (71-79) and the seasoned Gaurav Ghei (78-73) and Ali Sher (73-77). As many as 15 Indians made the cut including Digvijay Singh (73-73), Ashok Kumar (75-70), Abhinav Lohan (72-73) and Mukesh (72-73) at tied 30th, Vinod Kumar (75-71), Kapil Kumar (73-73), Gaganjeet Bhullar (71-75) at tied 38th, Shamim Khan (72-75), Mandeo Pathania (75-72) and Manav Jaini (70-77) at tied 46th and Ajeetsh Sandhu (72-76) and Vijay Kumar (76-72) at tied 51st. Peter Uihlein (76-72) held his nerve and made the cut on his pro debut despite a double bogey on the par-4 fourth hole. Gangjee, had mixed feeling over his round. "I didn`t leave too many putts to be honest, I struggled a bit today, the greens got much firmer than yesterday and somehow that didn’t really help me, especially when I missed the greens, it was difficult to control the distances of my chips, it would bounce and take off. " Kapur said, "The conditions were a little easier, because it wasn’t as windy as yesterday, so the pins were a little more accessible. I hit lots of greens but didn’t hole any really long putts, just burned quite a lot of edges. PTI