Louis Philippe Cup: Miguel Carballo leads the field after round two

Bengaluru, August 1: Miguel Carballo of Argentina, battled through gusty winds and rain delays to take his quest for a first victory in Asia a step further, carding a solid round two score of 2-under par 68, to emerge sole halfway leader at the Louis Philippe Cup 2018, an Asian Development Tour (ADT) and Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) co-sanctioned event being hosted by Bengaluru’s Prestige Golfshire Club. He was overall 9-under 131 after 36 holes of golf.

Louis Philippe Cup: Udayan Mane, Miguel Carballo top the leaderboard on Day 1

A total of 51 players made the halfway cut on Wednesday, which was taken on a score of 2-over par.

India’s Udayan Mane, who along with Carballo shot a course record 63 on Tuesday beating Rashid Khan’s 67 set back in 2012, to be joint first round leader, returned a 1-under 69 on day two to lie second with fellow PGTI regular Om Prakash Chouhan. Chouhan, shot a 3-under 67 to go with his 5-under on the opening day, to tie with Mane at 8-under overall.

Udayan’s day one effort also makes him a leading contender for the Bio Gen Low Round Award, which carries cash INR 20,000 prize. Although he was tied with Carballo, he scores because of a better back nine, which is being used as a tie-breaker.

Carballo, a former PGA Tour player and two-time winner on the Web.com tour, said after his round, “It was a tough day for me because of the windy weather along with the heavy downfall. It stopped once before resuming once again, which resulted in four bogies for me. Although I could putt in six birdies, I would reiterate that it was a taxing day for me. The 16th hole was the toughest of the lot and I would concentrate on each hole separately in the next round, in case I end up hitting a bogie.”

All players felt that conditions were extremely challenging with strong winds blowing from all directions in the first half of the day and heavy rainfall in the second half resulting in a 40-minute stoppage of play, which in turn led to many players losing rhythm. According to Divyanshu Bajaj, who shot a 5-under on day one and shot 2-under on Wednesday to lay sole fourth, “I had a decent round day, but a very long day. I lost rhythm due to the rains which resulted in back to back bogeys on the 14th and 15th but thankfully I bounced back with a birdie on the 16th. The rains made things difficult and it just got windier. I plan to now stick to the basics as the weather is unpredictable and that is the plan for the final two days.”

Most golfers felt that after the rains fairways and greens also got much slower making low scores like that of day one difficult to come by.

In all this, the day’s best score came from the now seasoned Rashid Khan of India, a two-time winner on the Asian Tour. He shot a stand out 6-under early on in the day before the rains came down to move up to tied fifth with a score of 134 (-6) over two days. Two other seasoned Asian Tour pros, India’s Rahil Gangjee and Marcus Both of Australia also made the cut with steady rounds and within striking distance. Rahil shot a 69 to lie at tied 14th position on 2-under. Marcus was in the same position with a round of even par 70 on the day. Tommy Mansuwan of Thailand scored a hole-in-one on the second hole on Wednesday.

Also making the cut was Asian Games bound amateur Aadil Bedi who was lying tied 10t hwith a score of 137. He shot a 3-under on the day.