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Vijay Kumar takes one stroke lead

Vijay Kumar of Lucknow carded a superb three under par 67 to take a one stroke lead, even as twice Indian Open winner Ali Sher of Calcutta hogged the limelight, returning with the day's best score of four under par 66 to place himself in title contention at the end of the second round in the Rs 7.5 lakh Color Plus Golf championship at the sprawling Madras Gymkhana links today.

Looking for a unique double, the stocky Vijay Kumar, who won the Cosmo-Hindu Open last Saturday, took charge again with a two round gross of 135, ahead of Feroz Ali and Ali Sher (both Calcutta), who were one stroke behind the leader.

G S Sethi (Chandigarh), with a par round of 70 and veteran Calcutta pro Basad Ali and Kanpur's Shiv Prakash (both three under 67) were joint third with a two round tally of 137 as the contest began hotting up with the cut applied at eight over 148. 51 pros and six amateurs made the cut.

In the amateurs' section, local star Gurunath Meiyappan continued his good work with a two round score of 142 to emerge a clear leader, pushing another local star S Radhakrishnan a distant second at 152.

Leader in the last year's Order of Merit, Vijay Kumar, made full use of favourable conditions, though the greens were wet and could not be cut upto the zero level. Teeing off from the 10th hole, he played the first nine holes to par. In the return joruney, he fired a birdie in the first hole and then added two more in the third and ninth holes to return with a card of three under 67.

"I am hungry for another win. Only yesterday, somebody told me that there has never been a "double" in Chennai. I want to achieve it with a victory here", Vijay Kumar said later.

But overnight leader and reigning champion Sanjay Kumar of Lucknow had a nightmarish round as he slipped to the 18th position. He was not in his elements returning with a poor round of seven over par 77.

Teeing off from the tenth hole, he dropped shots on as many as seven occasions in the 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th, fourth, third and ninth holes to have a two round score of 142.

But the day belonged to Ali Sher, who was very much satisfied with his putting. "If I putt the way I did today, I will win the title," he said.

The veteran pro, who had an even par round of 70 yesterday, fired birdies on the 12th, 16th, third, fourth and seventh holes, interspersed with a bogey in the 17th hole to tie with Feroz Ali for the second spot.

Scores:
Pros:
Vijay Kumar (Lucknow) 68"67=135; Feroz Ali (Cal) 68=68=136; Ali Sher (Cal) 70"66=136; G S Sethi (Chand) 67"70=137; Basad Ali (Cal) 67"70=137; Shiv Prakash (Kanpur) 70"67=137; Amritinder Singh (Chand) 67"71=138; Rohtas Singh (Delhi) 68"71=139; Digvijay Singh (Meerut) 70"69=139; Harmeet Kahlon (Chand) 67"73=140; Asgar Ali (Cal) 70"70=140; Rajit Singh (Chand) 70"70=140; S S P Chowrasia 72"69=141.

Amateurs:
B Gurunath Meiyappan (Chen) 69"73=142, S Radhakrishnan (Chen) 74"78=152; Vivek V Raghavan (Chenm) 77"81=158; D Ponkumar (Chen) 76"82=158.

UNI