Local star comes good on second day of Standard Chartered Open 2012

After a steady even par opening round yesterday, local Sri Lankan star Mithun Perera came roaring up the score-board in the second round of The Standard Chartered Open 2012 with an eight under par ‘bogey free’ 63. He lies two shots off the lead which is jointly held by Abhijit Chadha, the overnight leader who added a four under par 67 to yesterday’s 65 and Shamim Khan who built on his first round 68 with an impressive seven under par 64 today – both are sitting at the top of the leader-board with a half-way total of 132, ten under par.

“It was great to have a bogey free round today; a 63 is obviously a good score, but it could have been better, I had a few near misses. The course is in really good condition and I think ‘local knowledge’ helped me a lot, particularly with the speed of the greens. I hope I can continue to exploit the local conditions in the final two rounds,” said Perera.  

Shamim Khan was happy that he has been able to carry on the good form he has shown so far this season having won the PGTI Players’ Championship at Pune and had seven other top 10 finishes, “I have worked hard on my game and I was happy with all my play today, the ball was rolling really well. Obviously Mithun and Anura have ‘home course advantage’ but I will play my normal game for the last two rounds and let’s see what happens.”

Level with Perera on a 36 hole total of 134 are Sanjay Kumar with a pair of 67s and Vinod Kumar who shot 68 today to go with his 66 yesterday. They lie three shots clear of Abhinav Lohan who showed good improvement over his first round one over par 72 with a six under par 65 today, Mukesh Kumar who added a three under par 68 to an opening 69, Kamil Kumar who failed to improve on his overnight position of five under par with an even par round today and Vijay Kumar who has had rounds of 69 and 68 – all four players on a half-way total of 137.

A further shot back on four under, 138, is leading local player Anura Rohana who went round in a one under par 70 today to go with yesterday’s 68, Rashid Khan who could only manage an even par 71 today to add to his four under par 67 yesterday and Abhishek Jha who had the reverse fortunes – an even par 71 yesterday and a four under par 67 today.  The third local Sri Lankan player under par yesterday, Zen Dharmaratne, had another steady one under par round 71 today to give him a two under par half-way total of 140. He is a young Sri Lankan amateur player and obviously a player who is not afraid to ‘mix it’ with the professionals – one to watch for the future.

Although the course was very wet after heavy overnight rain, a lot of the players found their scoring touch today over The Royal Colombo Golf Club course – in all, just under half of the 87 player field broke par including C Muniyappa who shot 65 for a 36 hole total of 141 – it is good to see him back in form after various injury problems over the last 18 months or so. Based on the half-way cut which came at 146, four over par, 52 players made it through to the final 36 holes.

The Standard Chartered Open 2012 is title sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and supported by Dialog, The Taj Samudra Hotel, Metropolitan – Canon, The Ministry of Tourism, Durdans Hospital and The Colombo Courtyard Hotel. The event is being co-promoted by Pro Golf Ltd, a Colombo based sports events and distribution company, and Sports Mantra, a Delhi based sports events and marketing company.

Leading Scores: 132 Abhijit Chadha (65,67), Shamim Khan (68,64); 134 Mithun Perera (71,63), Sanjay Kumar (67,67), Vinod Kumar (66, 68); 137 Abhinav Lohan (72,65), Mukesh Kumar (69,68), Kapil Kumar (66,71), Vijay Kumar (69,68); 138 Rashid Khan (67,71), Abhishek Jha (71,67), Anura Rohana (68,70)