Rashid, Shankar on top at halfway stage of PGTI Players C'ship

Rashid Khan and Shankar Das share the lead after round two even as defending champion Om Prakash Chouhan (77-78) missed the cut at the The Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) Players Championship being played at the Oxford Golf and Country Club, here today.
Rashid shot a five-under-67, the day's joint best score, to join Shankar at the top of the leaderboard at seven-under-137. Shankar fired a two-under-70 today.
Om Prakash Chouhan totaled 11-over-155 after the first two rounds. Bangalore's Anirban Lahiri is one stroke off the lead in tied third along with the Delhi duo of Shamim Khan and Vinod Kumar. The cut was declared at three-over-147 and 50 golfers made the cut.

Shankar (67-70), the overnight leader, made a solid start in round two with seven straight pars.
Shankar rolled in a 10-footer for his first birdie of the day on the eighth. A brilliant chip set up a birdie for Shankar on the ninth and took his score to two-under for the round. But two poor shots on the 13th led to a bogey for the soft-spoken golfer.
Shankar closed the day on a high after securing a birdie on the 18th. He hit an astonishing approach shot from 115 yards out on the 18th that hit the edge of the hole and lipped out.

"I was solid throughout the day. My focus was on shooting an under-par score in order to stay on track for the last two days. The sand-wedge approach shot on the 18th was my best shot of the tournament so far and helped to lift my confidence a great deal. However, the chipping was disappointing in round two. I need to chip better in order to stay in contention," he said.