Gandas soars into lead

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Manu Gandas

Gurgaon-based Manu Gandas shot a brilliant 4-under par 68 despite to climb to the top of the leaderboard at the end of the half-way stage of the IGU Southern India junior boys golf championship at the KGA course in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Manu who had a opening round of 73, was 3-under 141 for 36 holes and one shot ahead of overnight leader Tapendra Ghai who signed a card of 2-under 70 on Day II.
Feroz Singh Garewal was third at 146 while Viraj Madappa was fourth at 148. Jairaj Singh Sandhu and Prakhar Asawa shared fifth place on 149 while Yuvraj Sandhu was placed sixth at 151.
Arjun Prasad was leading Category B with a two-day total of 152, Jaiveer Singh trailing him by four shots. K. Sidharth was third at 157 while Karandeep Kochar and Arjun Puri were tied for fourth at 159 while
Manu made a dream start with birdies on the first two holes and continued in the same vein saving pars along the way before making another pair of birdies to be 4-under after six holes.
However consecutive bogeys on the last two holes of his front nine reduced his score to 2-under. On the back nine, after a birdie on the first hole, Manu saved one more stroke on the par-5 fifth hole.
He was careful not to commit any mistakes as he signed off with a clean slate on his return journey.
“I was hitting the ball really well and saved some good pars,” said the leader.
“The back to back bogeys on my front nine bogged me down a bit.
“However on the walk from the 18th green to the 1st tee, I told myself I would not commit more such mistakes,” said Manu.