Vijay Kumar perched himself atop the leaderboard with a two-day tally of three-under 139 in the Rs One million Air Canada Forest Hill Golf Open, being played at the par-70, Forest Hill Golf & Country Club.
The Lucknow golfer shot a one-over 71 today. Kolkata's Yusuf Ali was placed second at level-par 140.
The cut was applied at 15-over 157 with 51 pros making it to the deciding rounds.
In an effort to speed up play and avoid congestion on the golf course, the originally par-4 third and 12th holes were played as par-3's today. This brought the par for the course down by two strokes to 70.
Earlier, overnight leader Harmeet Kahlon pulled out of the second round citing a sore elbow. Kahlon had led the tournament after the opening round at a score of six-under 66.
The second day's play was inaugurated by Shiv Sagar Suri, Relationship Manager, Forits Heart & Multi-Speciality, one of the tournament sponsors.
Vijay Kumar was a victim of the 'Friday the 13th' syndrome or so it seemed.
The stocky Lucknow pro did little wrong but was from time to time set back by nuggets of bad-luck. The initial part of his round looked good with birdies on the sixth and ninth, placing him at two-under at the lemon break.
Six under for the tournament at that stage, Vijay looked all set to widen the margin between him and the field. This was however not to be. The 12th hole proved to be his nemesis. His tee shot aimed at a green placed straight ahead swerved to the right, rolled downhill, finally gliding comfortably into the water-body guarding the fourth fairway. This earned Vijay his first bogey of the day. The ruffled golfer responded by dropping a shot on the very next hole as well.
On the par-4 15th, Vijay looked like making up, but with a four-feet birdie putt staring him in the face, he two-putted to par the hole. The final nail in his coffin came on the 18th, where a near perfect tee shot landed in a covered pit. A lost stroke there fetched him a day's card of one-over 71.
"Poor putting and bad luck did me in," said Vijay, who incidentally returned a dismal 34 putts for his round.
"I am hitting the ball well though and look forward to a better round tomorrow," he added.
Kolkata's Yusuf Ali's performance was not unlike the terrain at the Forest Hill Golf & Country Club . . roller coaster like. The toothy Kolkatan started the day with a birdie but dropped shots on the next two holes. He made up with a birdie on the sixth to make the turn at level-par. On the back nine, Yusuf carded his third birdie of the day on the 11th, but was set back by consecutive bogeys on the 12th and 13th. A well sunk 30 feet birdie putt on the 16th evened things out yet again but was followed immediately after by yet another bogey on the 17th. Mercifully, Yusuf ended his round with a birdie on the 18th to settle for a card of level-par 70.
Thind continues to lead amateurs: Local lad Ashpreet Thind fired a round of two-over 72, to continue in the amateur lead, three strokes ahead of second placed Kuldeep Singh.
Scores (after 36 holes): 139_Vijay Kumar(68,71); 140_Yusuf Ali(70,70); 142_Pappan(71,71); 143_Basad Ali(71,72), Rahul Ganapathy(73,70), Shamim Khan(74,69); 145_Dinesh Kumar(72,73), Naman Dawar(71,74), Sanjay Kumar(74,71), Zai Kipgen(73,72), Jaiveer Virk(75,70), Ali Sher(70,75).
Amateurs: 149_Ashpreet Thind(77,72); 152_Kuldeep Singh(78,74).
