Bhullar on top, Sandhu second

Macau, October 20

Gaganjeet Bhullar, Ajeetesh Sandhu and Shubhankar Sharma figured in the top-5 at the halfway stage of the Macau Open.  Bhullar (64-65), winner of seven Asian Tour events, eagled the 18th to build up a massive five-shot lead over Chandigarh golfer Ajeetesh Sandhu (66-67).

Bhullar is 13-under for 36 holes, while Sandhu, who has won an Asian Tour event in Taipei and a Japanese Challenge Tour event in his previous two starts in two weeks, is at 9-under. Panchkula golfer Shubhankar Sharma (69-68) is tied-5th at 5-under 136.

Rashid Khan (70 -70) was at tied-14th at 2-under 140, Chiragh Kumar (70-71), Khalin Joshi (70-71) and S Chikkarangappa (69-72) were all tied-20th at 1-under 141. Jyoti Randhawa (70-73) was tied-39th, M Dharma (74-70) tied-53rd and Himmat Rai (73-72) tied-60th also made the cut.

Missing the cut were Honey Baisoya, Rahil Gangjee, Aman Raj, Arjun Prasad and Udayan Mane. The 29-year-old Bhullar stayed on course for his eighth Asian Tour title with five birdies, an eagle and one bogey, his only error in 36 holes at the Macau Golf and Country Club.

Bhullar rolled in four birdies to turn in 31 and then picked up another birdie on the 13 but stumbled with a lone bogey on the 15th before bouncing back strongly with an eagle-three on the 18th. He smashed a solid drive down the middle of the 18th fairway and backed it with a superb three-wood second shot from about 270 yards, which hit the pin flag before settling two feet from the hole for a tap-in eagle.

“The eagle on the 18th was the most interesting part of my round. It was good solid round. It was windy. It wasn’t easy. I thought it was slightly more difficult than yesterday. I made a good par save on the first hole and that kept me going,” said Bhullar.

Sandhu continued his red-hot form to sign for a 67 and moved into an outright second place, keeping up his chase for a third straight victory in three weeks at the $500,000 full-field Asian Tour event. Shubhankar (68) shared fifth place on 137 with Thailand Prom Meesawat. — PTI