Khan, Digvijay, Jha share lead after day two

Mumbai: Shamim Khan, Digvijay Singh and Abhishek Jha shared the joint lead at four-under 136 after round two of the PGTI Players Championship at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club here today. Gaganjeet Bhullar and Mohd Siddikur Rahman were one stroke behind the joint leaders in tied fourth place. Shamim Khan (69, 67) returned a card of three-under 67 to stay on top of the leaderboard on a high-scoring day. He birdied the fourth following an excellent bunker shot and then parred the eighth by recovering from a difficult position. The Delhi-based professional closed his round on a high by converting a mammoth 40 feet putt for an eagle on the 18th. "It`s great to be in the joint lead at this stage. I was very consistent today and successfully managed to negotiate the tight fairways. It`s going to be tough to shoot low numbers over the next two days as chip-putts are not easy to come by due to the rough around the greens," he said. Digvijay Singh (68, 68) of the DLF Golf and Country Club fired a second consecutive 68 to end the day as the joint second round leader. He bogeyed the 15th and then rallied to make birdies on the 16th, 18th and fourth. The birdie on the fourth came as a result of a 35 feet putt. Abhishek Jha (66, 70) of Bangalore made four birdies and four bogeys in his second round of even par 70 to share the lead with Shamim Khan and Digvijay Singh. Kapurthala`s Bhullar (66, 71) and Rahman (66, 71) of Bangladesh shared the fourth place at three-under 137. Gurbaaz Mann (63, 76) of Chandigarh, the round one leader, had a poor day and was tied sixth along with Ashok Kumar (71, 68) at one-under 139. C Muniyappa and Anirban Lahiri were in joint 11th place at one-over 141. The cut was declared at nine-over 149 and sixty professionals made the cut. PTI