Indians on top at Asia Pacific Junior Golf Championship

Kolkata: Viraj Madappa and Manu Gandas combined well as India A usurped the lead against Chinese Taipei by four shots, while the girls too emerged on top on the second day of the Asia Pacific Junior Golf Championship at the RCGC here today.

On a day when the course played tough, Thailand's Suradit Yongcharoenchai shot 2-under par 70 to lead in the individual category as the 15-year-old was level par 144 after 36 holes.

Madappa added another 73 to his overnight 73 to be in second place, just two shots behind the leader with team mate Gandas a further two shots behind Viraj.

The duo combined together in the team section to establish a four-shot lead over Chinese Taipei A consisting of overnight leader Sung I Yu and Chun An Yu.

Thailand B comprising of Ekthumrong Luanganuruk, Suradit Yongcharoenchai were in third place at 301.

In the girls category that began today, India's Ridhima Dilawari shot a level par 72 to be tied for the top spot along with Min-Jou Chen of Chinese Taipei.

Gurbani Singh was in third place at 73.

Ridhima had finished second at the All India Juniors at the very same venue last year which has also been her best finish of her career thus far.

Today, the 15-year-old began on a solid note making pars on the first three holes while making a birdie on the par-5 fourth hole.

However, she hit a blue patch on when she made a bogey on the par-4 sixth and a double on the next hole to close her front nine at 2-over.

She made amends on the back nine when she was on a birdie blitz making four birdies in five holes from 11th to 15th.

A bogey each on the 16th and 18th, she was back to level par.

Leaderboard

Individual Boys (A&B) (36 holes): 144 Suradit Yongcharoenchai (THA) (74, 70); 146 Viraj Madappa (IND) (73, 73); 148 Manu Gandas (IND) (73, 75), Sung I Yu (69, 79); 150 Chun An Yu (TPE) (76, 74); 152 Feroz Singh Garewal (IND) (75, 77); 154 Mohan Sardar (IND) (78, 76); 156 Natchapon Eaksen (THA) (78, 78), Karandeep Kochhar (IND) (75, 81), Chang-Heng Lin (TPE) (74, 82); 157 Leon Philip D'souza (HK) (81, 76), Ekthumrong Luanganuruk (THA) (78, 79), Thanakorn Torsee (THA) (75, 82).

Individual Girls (A & B) (18 holes): 72 Min-Jou Chen (TPE), Ridhima Dilawari (IND); 73 Gurbani Singh (IND); 74 Natnicha Chomchoei (THA); 75 Kai Wing Li (HK), Aditi Ashok (IND); 76 Cih-Hui Chen (TPE); 77 Hsin-En Tsai (TPE); 78 Yu-Hsin Chang (TPE); 79 Pinyada Kuvanun (THA), Suchitra Ramesh (IND), Ying Tung Queenie Lai (HK)

Team Boys: 294 India A (Viraj Madappa, Manu Gandas); 298 Chinese Taipei A (Sung I Yu, Chun An Yu); 301 Thailand B (Ekthumrong Luanganuruk, Suradit Yongcharoenchai); 313 Thailand A (Natchapon Eaksen, Thanakorn Torsee)

Team Girls: 147 India B (Ridhima Dilawari, Aditi Ashok); 150 Chinese Taipei (Min-Jou Chen, Yu-Shin Chang); 152 India A (Gurbani Singh, Millie saroha).

Category C: 76 Kshitij Naved Kaul (IND); 78 Sunhit Bishnoi (IND); 79 Saarthak Chhibber (IND); 82 Pratyush Sharma (IND), Chun Hin Mun (HK).