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Bhullar, Praegant joint leader at Gujarat Kensville Challenge

By Pti

Ahmedabad, Jan 14 (PTI) Indian golfer Gaganjeet Bhullarand Florian Praegant of Austria shared the lead after thesecond round of the Gujarat Kensville Challenge golftournament here today.

Bhullar added a two-under par to his overnight 70 butPraegant shot a one-under with a last hole birdle to finishalong with the Indian at a 36-hole total of four-under 140.

The duo are being chased by overnight leader SiddikurRahman of Bangladesh who was just a stroke behind at 141.

Englishman Matt Ford shot the day''s best of four-under 68to move up to joint fourth position along with India''sAbhishek Jha, and Englishmen Daniel Denison and MatthewBaldwin who all were tied at 142.

Beginning from the 10th, Bhullar was in full flow withbirdies on the first two holes. A bad tee shot cost him astroke on the 14th as he took the turn at one-under.

On the back nine, the 23-year-old fired two more birdieson the third and eighth and went over on the fourth to finishhis round with a two-under.

"You have to precise with your tee shot as there arewater bodies and out of bounds on almost every hole," said thelad from Kapurthala.

"It is a long course. The greens are tough as they arehard at the moment and are playing fast. I had trouble puttingas I have recently changed my putter. This is the firsttournament I''ve used it and it is a bit heavy. I was leavingmy putts a bit short, but I think I am getting accustomed tothe pace now," said Bhullar.

The other leader Praegant will also be looking for avictory here. It was in 2006 when an adventurous dive into thesea landed him with a broken neck and rendered him immobilefor more than three months. But he came back strongly andearned a card on the main Tour.

Praegant birdied his opening hole and with a bogey on the17th, he remained even par for the front nine. An eventfulback nine saw him making three birdies on the third, fifth andninth along with a double bogey on the sixth.

"Compared to the opening day I''m not as happy with myround today, as I only hit ten greens. Some of my tee shotswent awry and my short game was also a little suspect, so theonly reason I shot under par was because of my putter, whichwas working well. Hopefully it works for me as well over thenext two days," he said.

"I don''t know much about Bhullar but I read in the papersthat he''s one of India''s top players, so I''m looking forwardto playing with him. But I''m just going to stick to my owngame plan of trying to keep the ball in play," he added. PTIATK

Story first published: Saturday, January 15, 2011, 0:00 [IST]
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