Defending champion Keita Nakajima started the day six shots off the lead and fired nine birdies, including five in a row from the 3rd hole, as well as three bogeys to close with a 6-under 66 and take a share of the lead at 4-under at the Hero Indian Open.
“It was a great day and also it was so fun. Two rounds, so yeah, two more days,” said the Japanese player.
“So my mindset changed. This is a tough course but a fun course. Me and my caddie were talking about playing it like a fun course. Just keep patient, and keep smiling. That was good.
“Maybe I will feel a little nervous tomorrow morning but I will try playing with a smile and also have fun. That’d be great.”
Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra closed with a 70 for his share of the lead having made two bogeys and a double bogey at the par-4 17th.
“Obviously it was tough. The afternoon wave in a course like this is going to be tougher and the wind picked up I think pretty much all day but it was tough,” said Chacarra.
“Obviously really pleased with the result. I think I started really good but I think I left some out there to be honest.
“I’m just trying to have fun. I know this course is a test for everyone and one bad swing hits you hard. So I’m happy with the result but obviously it’s only Friday. Really excited for hopefully a good weekend.”
Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Sweden’s Jens Dantorp both backed up their opening 71s with more 71s for a share of third place at 2-under alongside Italy’s Andrea Pavan who carded a 69 as well as England’s Matthew Jordan and the Netherlands’ Joost Luiten who both signed for 73s.
Overnight co-leader Marcus Kinhult of Sweden carded a 75 and moved down into T8 at 1-under. England’s Marcus Armitage who shared the lead shot a 68 and moved down into T25 at 2-over and finally Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts is T58 at 6-over having shot 82.
Related: The Italian Golf Shoe Evolution Continues with Duca Del Cosma SS25 Collection
| Pos. | Player | To Par | R1 | R2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CHACARRA, Eugenio | -4 | 70 | 70 |
| | NAKAJIMA, Keita | -4 | 74 | 66 |
| 3 | APHIBARNRAT, Kiradech | -2 | 71 | 71 |
| | DANTORP, Jens | -2 | 71 | 71 |
| | PAVAN, Andrea | -2 | 73 | 69 |
| | JORDAN, Matthew | -2 | 69 | 73 |
| | LUITEN, Joost | -2 | 69 | 73 |
| 8 | CLEMENTS, Todd | -1 | 69 | 74 |
| | SENIOR, Jack | -1 | 72 | 71 |
| | FERGUSON, Ewen | -1 | 72 | 71 |
| STONE, Brandon | -1 | 70 | 73 | |
| | KINHULT, Marcus | -1 | 68 | 75 |
| | VAILLANT, Tom | -1 | 71 | 72 |
| | AYORA, Angel | -1 | 70 | 73 |
| 15 | COCKERILL, Aaron | Par | 70 | 74 |
| | LACROIX, Frederic | Par | 72 | 72 |
| | MOLINARI, Edoardo | Par | 73 | 71 |
| | HALVORSEN, Andreas | Par | 70 | 74 |
| | SADDIER, Adrien | Par | 74 | 70 |
| 20 | MERRITT, Troy | +1 | 70 | 75 |
| | BERRY, Joshua | +1 | 71 | 74 |
| | GUERRIER, Julien | +1 | 71 | 74 |
| | BHULLAR, Gaganjeet | +1 | 72 | 73 |
| | KO, Jeong weon | +1 | 71 | 74 |
| 25 | ARMITAGE, Marcus | +2 | 68 | 78 |
| KAPUR, Shiv | +2 | 72 | 74 | |
| | SANDHU, Ajeetesh | +2 | 69 | 77 |
| | HARDING, Justin | +2 | 72 | 74 |
| | RAJ, Aman | +2 | 73 | 73 |
| | PARRY, John | +2 | 71 | 75 |
| 31 | ZANOTTI, Fabrizio | +3 | 75 | 72 |
| | REITAN, Kristoffer | +3 | 72 | 75 |
| | LARRAZÁBAL, Pablo | +3 | 75 | 72 |
| | GOUVEIA, Ricardo | +3 | 72 | 75 |
| | LINDELL, Oliver | +3 | 71 | 76 |
| | KAUL, Kshitij Naveed | +3 | 77 | 70 |
| | KIMSEY, Nathan | +3 | 73 | 74 |
| | COUSSAUD, Ugo | +3 | 69 | 78 |
| | GREEN, Gavin | +3 | 74 | 73 |
| | AHLAWAT, Veer | +3 | 70 | 77 |
| 41 | PULKKANEN, Tapio | +4 | 72 | 76 |
| | HEBERT, Benjamin | +4 | 71 | 77 |
| | COUVRA, Martin | +4 | 74 | 74 |
| | SINGH SANDHU, Jairaj | +4 | 76 | 72 |
| | GERMISHUYS, Deon | +4 | 71 | 77 |
| | KNAPPE, Alexander | +4 | 70 | 78 |
| | WINTHER, Jeff | +4 | 73 | 75 |
| | BAISOYA, Sachin | +4 | 73 | 75 |
| | JARVIS, Casey | +4 | 70 | 78 |
| | CHOUHAN, Om Prakash | +4 | 72 | 76 |
| CAMPILLO, Jorge | +4 | 75 | 73 | |
| 52 | THANGARAJA, N | +5 | 73 | 76 |
| | FISHER, Ross | +5 | 69 | 80 |
| | NIENABER, Wilco | +5 | 75 | 74 |
| | SCRIVENER, Jason | +5 | 72 | 77 |
| | SHARMA, Shubhankar | +5 | 75 | 74 |
| | TALWAR, Saptak | +5 | 74 | 75 |
| 58 | GALE, Daniel | +6 | 76 | 74 |
| | PAUL, Yannik | +6 | 72 | 78 |
| | ERICKSON, Dan | +6 | 75 | 75 |
| | RAVETTO, David | +6 | 78 | 72 |
| | HILL, Calum | +6 | 75 | 75 |
| | ROBINSON THOMPSON, Brandon | +6 | 73 | 77 |
| | BHATTACHARYA, Shaurya | +6 | 73 | 77 |
| | COLSAERTS, Nicolas | +6 | 68 | 82 |
| | HILLIER, Daniel | +6 | 76 | 74 |
| | HIDALGO, Angel | +6 | 75 | 75 |
| | FITZPATRICK, Alex | +6 | 73 | 77 |
| CUT | ||||
| 69 | MANSELL, Richard | +7 | 75 | 76 |
| | VEERMAN, Johannes | +7 | 72 | 79 |
| | THOMAS, Rayhan | +7 | 72 | 79 |
| | LINDBERG, Mikael | +7 | 81 | 70 |
| | DHARMA, M | +7 | 74 | 77 |
| | ENOCH, Rhys | +7 | 72 | 79 |
| | SINGH, Kartik (AM) | +7 | 76 | 75 |
| | SCHAPER, Jayden | +7 | 74 | 77 |
| | JOHNSTON, Ryggs | +7 | 73 | 78 |
| | LAPORTA, Francesco | +7 | 72 | 79 |
| | PENGE, Marco | +7 | 73 | 78 |
| 80 | ELVIRA, Manuel | +8 | 75 | 77 |
| | AIKEN, Thomas | +8 | 77 | 75 |
| | ELVIRA, Nacho | +8 | 74 | 78 |
| | KIEFFER, Maximilian | +8 | 74 | 78 |
| | CHAWRASIA, S.S.P. | +8 | 72 | 80 |
| | SHINKWIN, Callum | +8 | 72 | 80 |
| | OTAEGUI, Adrian | +8 | 77 | 75 |
| | BAUTISTA, Austin | +8 | 76 | 76 |
| | PARIKH, Varun | +8 | 77 | 75 |
| 89 | MIGLIOZZI, Guido | +9 | 73 | 80 |
| | STERNE, Richard | +9 | 74 | 79 |
| | WU, Brandon | +9 | 72 | 81 |
| | ÅKESSON, Björn | +9 | 78 | 75 |
| | VAN DRIEL, Darius | +9 | 80 | 73 |
| | GUMBERG, Jordan | +9 | 72 | 81 |
| | BALDWIN, Matthew | +9 | 72 | 81 |
| | LEVY, Alexander | +9 | 72 | 81 |
| | SCHMIDT, Ben | +9 | 77 | 76 |
| | DAS, Shankar | +9 | 79 | 74 |
| 99 | VAN VELZEN, Ryan | +10 | 70 | 84 |
| | BJERREGAARD, Lucas | +10 | 72 | 82 |
| BAIRSTOW, Sam | +10 | 76 | 78 | |
| | SCHNEIDER, Marcel | +10 | 76 | 78 |
| 103 | DE BRUYN, Jannik | +11 | 75 | 80 |
| | PURCELL, Conor | +11 | 75 | 80 |
| | LOMBARD, Zander | +11 | 79 | 76 |
| | GANDAS, Manu | +11 | 80 | 75 |
| | SCHWAB, Matthias | +11 | 74 | 81 |
| | HOSSAIN, Jamal | +11 | 76 | 79 |
| | JOHN, Cameron | +11 | 83 | 72 |
| | SANDHU, Yuvraj | +11 | 81 | 74 |
| | SHEORAN, Dhruv | +11 | 78 | 77 |
| 112 | CABRERA BELLO, Rafa | +12 | 81 | 75 |
| | LANGASQUE, Romain | +12 | 79 | 77 |
| 114 | LAGERGREN, Joakim | +13 | 74 | 83 |
| | DEAN, Joe | +13 | 74 | 83 |
| | PINEAU, Pierre | +13 | 80 | 77 |
| | FOLLETT-SMITH, Benjamin | +13 | 82 | 75 |
| | MISHRA, Anshul (AM) | +13 | 77 | 80 |
| | MOSCATEL, Joel | +13 | 77 | 80 |
| 120 | ALBERTSE, Louis | +14 | 82 | 76 |
| | LOHAN, Abhinav | +14 | 80 | 78 |
| 122 | HUIZING, Daan | +15 | 77 | 82 |
| 123 | DAHIYA, Rakshit (AM) | +16 | 78 | 82 |
| | MANE, Udayan | +16 | 81 | 79 |
| | WHITNELL, Dale | +16 | 79 | 81 |
| 126 | SINGH AHLAWAT, Anant (AM) | +17 | 77 | 84 |
| 127 | GRIFFIN, Matthew | +18 | 80 | 82 |
| | SETHIE, Harshjeet Singh | +18 | 81 | 81 |
| | GIRRBACH, Joel | +18 | 81 | 81 |
| 130 | Pratap Singh, Karan | +20 | 87 | 77 |
| 131 | BARKER, Lachlan | +21 | 82 | 83 |
| 132 | BINU, Shaurya | +22 | 84 | 82 |
| DISQ | KIM, MK | +9 | 72 | - |
| W/D | KENNEDY, Frank | +10 | 82 | - |
| RETD | WIESBERGER, Bernd | +11 | 78 | - |
| RETD | CHEEMA, Angad | +15 | 81 | - |
| RETD | SIEM, Marcel | +9 | 76 | - |
| RETD | WILSON, Andrew | +12 | 79 | - |
Simon Bale
The editorial team at Golf Today strives to provide readers with captivating content that celebrates the rich heritage and exciting developments in the world of golf. Their collective expertise and dedication ensure that Golf Today remains a premier destination for golf enthusiasts seeking the latest news, insightful analysis, and engaging stories from the world of golf.