Jamal Hossain produced a tournament low score of seven-under 65 to rise into the lead at a total of 11-under 133 in Round 2 of the IndianOil SERVO Masters 2024 being played at the Digboi Golf Links in Digboi, Assam.
Related: Drawing board to early lead in Digboi, Amardeep Malik calls it right
Shivendra Singh Sisodia shot a 66 to end the day in second position at nine-under 135.
Mani Ram and Milind Soni were placed tied third at eight-under 136.
Overnight leader Amardeep Malik, former champion Honey Baisoya, Olympian Udayan Mane, C Muniyappa, Vikrant Chopra and Divyansh Dubey were all tied in fifth place at six-under 138.
Deven Bhumij was the only Digboi-based professional to make the cut as he was placed tied 27th at one-under 143.
The cut came down at three-over 147. Fifty-three professionals made the cut.
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Jamal (68-65), a four-time winner on the PGTI, began the day one shot off the lead in tied second. Jamal had a forgettable start as he bogeyed the first hole. He then began finding his touch when he drove the green on the Par-4 third hole to score his first birdie of the day.
Jamal thereafter pulled out some great iron and wedge shots to regularly land it close to the pins to pick up seven more birdies. His longest conversion of the day was a 12-footer for birdie on the 15th.
Jamal credited his hitting for his low score, saying, “I feel I regained my hitting form since last week’s event in Jaipur. I hadn’t been striking the ball well prior to that. I worked on my hitting to sort out a few things before the Jaipur event and since then I’ve been striking it well.
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“I kept hitting it close today especially with my approach shots to create chances and left myself just one long putt. Importantly, I came back strongly despite a bogey at the start of the day. The birdies on the sixth, seventh and eighth gave impetus to my round. I did well on the Par-5s scoring three birdies on them.”
Shivendra’s (69-66) round featured an eagle on the 11th, six birdies and two bogeys. He was chipping it to perfection on Thursday as he chipped-in for birdie on the 17th and also produced other good chips from the edge and the bunker to set up some short birdie putts.
