Golfer Shiv retains lead; Bhullar, Khalin joint 4th at Royal Cup

Indian golfer Shiv Kapur remained in the first place, alongside Prom Meesawat of Thailand, while Gaganjeet Bhullar and Khalin Joshi shared the fourth place after the second round of the $500,000 Royal Cup here on Friday.

Shiv kept mistakes out of his game and carded a bogey-free three-under 68 which took his two-day total to seven-under 135 at the Phoenix Gold Golf and Country.

Similar to round one, he needed a few holes to get his game started. Things went on track for him after consecutive birdies on the sixth and seven.

"I was bogey-free today. I kept the mistakes off the card. I felt that I had a slow start as I didn't give myself birdie chances in the first five holes. I ground out a few pars, made a birdie on the sixth and a good birdie on seven. I got going after that," Shiv said in an Asian Tour release.

"I thought the conditions were much tougher today. The winds picked up and the greens got firm. The greens were pretty fast as well. Over at the back nine, I was just hanging on and trying to avoid the mistakes," he added.

"Overall, if you're leading the tournament, you can't be too unhappy. Hopefully, I can handle it better tomorrow and give myself a few more chances. I also hope that the course stays tough because I like it to be tough."

Meesawat shot a four-under-par 67 to add to his opening round of 68. The only blemish on his scorecard was a bogey on hole two. Prom put it down to bad luck as the wind picked up just as he hit the ball flush.

Lu Wei-chih of Chinese Taipei was two shots behind the leaders in lone third after carding a 69.

India's Bhullar dropped three places to be fourth following a one-under 71. He now has a total of four-under 138 -- same as Khalin, who got a 68 to move up 16 spots in the final event on the 2017 Asian Tour schedule.

The next best Indian was veteran Jyoti Randhawa, who got a share of the 35th spot on one-over 143 total. He carded a 73 on the day as he dropped 15 places.

--IANS

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