Mahipat Singh in action at Golmuri Golf Course on Wednesday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Mahipat Singh of Mumbai fired a one-over par 72 to claim pole position by one stroke at the halfway stage of the Tata Steel All India Sub-junior and Feeder Tour final at Golmuri golf course on Wednesday.

Delhi’s Prateek Malik remained in touch with the leader after carding a two over par 73. A further stroke behind at a gross of nine-over par 151 was the duo of Mayank Thakur (Chandigarh) and Rohan Rajware (Gurgaon), who were tied for third place.

The fifth place was being shared between Jay Pandya (Ahmedabad), Bala Mitran (Chennai) and local lad Rohit Kumar Bouri at 10-over par 152 gross followed by the overnight leader Calcutta’s Udayjit Bhalotia who had a horror round of 10-over par 81 for the day.

Mahipat began his round rather cautiously when he dropped a stroke on the very first hole. He made amends immediately with a birdie 3 on the second hole before seven successive pars had him even par for the day and five over par.

He began the back nine like he began the front as he made a bogey 4 on the 10th hole. He rolled in birdie putts on the par 4 13th hole and the par 3 16th hole but followed each with a bogey on the 14th and 17th holes.

He finished his round with a par on the final hole, which was enough to take home a one-stroke advantage.

“I was striking it pretty well out there and could sense birdie opportunities on most holes. The lead is marginal and I hope to do better on Thursday,” said Mahipat.

Second placed Prateek improved on his previous round by four strokes as he took a comfortable lead of six strokes in Category-B as he hit three bogeys to go with a solitary birdie on his way to finishing at a gross score of eight-over par 150.

He led Rajvir Randhawa (Calcutta) who was followed by Kaustubh Mishra (Mumbai) at a gross score of 15-over par 157.

The Category-C event kicked off on Wednesday with Tanmay Rakheja (Mumbai) taking a one-stroke lead after shooting a three-over par 75.

Harshjeet Sethie (Delhi) was placed second with Rajib Ali (Calcutta) a further three strokes behind in third place.