Rashid & Shankar on top at halfway stage

 By sportswire4u

PUNE, JUNE 26

Delhi’s Rashid Khan and Kolkata’s Shankar Das share the lead after round two of the PGTI Players Championship being played at the Oxford Golf & Country Club in Pune. Rashid shot a five-under-67, the day’s joint best score, to join Shankar Das at the top of the leaderboard at seven-under-137. Shankar fired a two-under-70 on Wednesday.

 Bengaluru’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. Fifty professionals made the cut.

 Shankar Das (67-70), the overnight leader, made a solid start in round two with seven straight pars. Das 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. Two poor shots on the 13^th led to a bogey for the soft-spoken golfer. Das closed the day on a high after securing a birdie on the 18^th. He hit an astonishing approach shot from 115 yards out on the 18^th that hit the edge of the hole and lipped out.

 Shankar said, “I was solid through 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 18^th was my best shot of the tournament so far and helped lift my confidence a great deal. However, the chipping was disappointing in round two. I