LAHORE, April 13: With an excellent second round of four-under-par-68, N. Thangaraja not only emerged as leader on the second day of the 51st National Golf Championship but also played a leading role to help Sri Lanka annex the team title at the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club here on Friday.
Pakistan’s Ali Hai was running in front on the first day and due to his performance Pakistan were also in front in the team’s event. But on Friday, Hai posted a poor card of four-over-par-76.
In contrary to Hai, Thangaraja, who had also played a sluggish round of 74 on the opening day, avoided mistakes he had committed on the first day and earned a fine card of 68 to make an aggregate score of 142 to take the driving seat.
Thangaraja’s superb second-round show and equally good performance by his compatriot N. Ranga helped Sri Lanka to lift theteam’s title with two-day aggregate score of 286.
The close fight for supremacy in the team event remained between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, as Pakistan ‘A’ team, the first dayleader, went out of the contest, mainly due to poor performance of Ali Hai on Friday.
The Bangladesh team comprising Dulal Hossain and Sajib Ali ended up as the runners-up with an aggregate score of 289.
Pakistan ‘B’ team consisting of Ghazanfar Mehmood and Wasim Rana came third with score of 291.
Thangaraja started the day with a birdie on the opening hole and thereafter continued to play flawlessly with another birdie on the eighth hole and three consecutive ones on 10th, 11th and 12th.
The leader looked confident although the competition from M. Dulal Hossain (Bangladesh), N. Ranga (Sri Lanka) and Waseem Rana (Pakistan) was close indeed.
Interestingly, Dulal was bracketed with Thangaraja at two rounds score of 142, two under par followed by N. Ranga, Waseem Rana and Ashiq Hussain at 144.
Although Dulal had been steady in both the rounds with 71 on the first day and again a 71 on the second day, the star touch was missing and he will have to struggle to match wits with Thangaraja over the next two days.
Thangaraja said, “I feel better as the game is progressing and my swing is responding more and more to my command and certainly the putting feel is no longer a problem.”
Whereas Dulal said, “I am so happy with my performance here and simply love this golf course.”
As for Ali Hai and M. Rehman, they hope to hit back in the third round.
In the inter-association team match, the team looking authoritative was Sindh with two-round score of 442.
They led Punjab by a margin of six strokes, which left the competition wide open.
Scores:142 — N.Thangaraja (Sri Lanka) 74, 68 ; M. Dulal Hossain (Bangladesh) 71, 71.
144 — N.Ranga (Sri Lanka)72, 72; Waseem Rana (Pakistan) 73, 71 ; Ashiq Hussain (Pakistan) 71, 73.
146 — Ali Hai (Pakistan) 70, 76.
147 — M. Sajib Ali (Bangladesh) 75, 72.
149 — M. Rehman (Pakistan) 72, 77.