Viraj Madappa rises to tied 7th in Taipei event

New Delhi: India’s latest winner on the Asian Tour, Viraj Madappa shot 10 shots better than the first round as he carded an impressive six-under 66 to jump to tied seventh spot at the $500,000 Yeangder Tournament Players Championship, in Linkou, Chinese Taipei, on Friday.

The drastic improvement in the second round helped Madappa to become the best Indian in the field, drastically moving up to tied seventh spot from overnight tied 80th position.

Madappa, now four shots behind joint leaders, John Catlin and Panuphol Pittyarat.

Karandeep Kochhar, another young gun from India improved his first round card by 13 shots, from 79 to 66 and moved to tied 34th, alongside Rashid Khan (75-70) and Khalin Joshi (72-73).

Ahead of them were Shiv Kapur (74-70) and S.S.P. Chawrasia (72-72), who are placed at tied-19th position. Himmat Rai (72-74) and S. Chikkarangappa (76-70) were the other Indians to make the cut in tied 49th place.

Of the 14 Indians who started on Thursday, six missed the cut and the big surprise was Shubhankar Sharma (75-73), who missed out by one shot.

Dismal start for Lahiri in Safeway
In Napa, California, Anirban Lahiri had a disappointing opening start at the Safeway Open, as he hit a 1-over 73 to lie way down the order after the first round.

Meanwhile, rookie Sepp Straka posted a bogey-free 9-under 63 and grabbed sole lead.