Shiv Kapur began his title defence at the Royal Cup with a 4-under 66 in windy conditions to be placed Tied-5th at the end of the first day at Pattaya on Friday. The 36-year-old, who won three times last year including the Royal Trophy, had six birdies against two bogeys.
Kapur was three shots behind Thailand’s Raththee Sirithanakunsak, who signed for a seven-under-par 63. The 28-year-old Thai chasing a breakthrough win on the Asian Tour, returned with a flawless card highlighted by seven birdies to take his place atop the leaderboard.
In-form Justin Harding of South Africa, who won in Indonesia two weeks ago, continued his good run of form by carding a 64 to tie in second place with Japan’s Naoto Nakanishi at the $500,000 event held at the Phoenix Gold Golf and Country Club.
Among other Indians, Honey Baisoya (67) was Tied-13, while Himmat Rai (68) was T-25 and Jeev Milkha Singh (69) was T-37.
Vani impresses in women’s Pro Golf Tour
Neha Tripathi put herself in contention yet again with a fine one-under 71 in the second round of the 10th Leg of the Women’s Pro Golf Tour at Hosur. Meanwhile, Vani Kapoor rebounded from her modest first round showing with the week’s best card of three-under 69 to move to Tied-2nd alongside Amandeep Drall (71-71) at Clover Greens.
Neha is now three-under 141 and holds a one-shot lead over Vani and Amandeep. Vani is playing only her third event on the WPGT this season. One shot behind them at one-under 143 is Gaurika Bishnoi (73-70). The scores this week have been consistently good with even the fifth placed Tvesa Malik (70-74) at even par.
(With inputs from PTI)