Pinehurst (USA), July 26: India’s Mahreen Bhatia, who has finished on the podium a few times in the last two years, looked set for another fine finish as she shot a bogey-free 5-under 67 to move into second place after two rounds in the girls’ 15-18 category at the US Kids World Teen Championship here.
There is one more round to go.
Mahreen, a medallist at various international events, had three birdies against two bogeys in the first round, but she was in great form in the second round as she birdied five times without dropping a shot.
She birdied the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and the 14th holes to take her total to 6-under 138 at Pinehurst 5 course.
Mahreen’s 67 was the day’s equal-best round alongside leader, USA’s Kady Matsumoto (68-67).
In the boys’ 15-18, Vihaan Jain, who was the leader with 67, suffered a dramatic drop with a second-round 78 that saw him slip to T-13. In the first round he had six birdies against one bogey, while in the second he had just one birdie against seven bogeys for a 6-over.
Arshvant Srivastava, a regular on the the US Kids World Championship, suffered a triple bogey in his second round but fought back to card 3-over 75 after a first round 71. At 2-over he is T-20, down from T-9 after the first day.
Two other two Indians in the girls’ 15-18 category, Ayesha Gupta (73-73) and Asara Sawhney (74-75), were T-12th and T-24th respectively. (PTI)
