Published on 12:00 AM, May 11, 2018

Jamal romps to the top

Jamal Hossain is ecstatic after sinking a shot. The local finished with an eight-under (134) at the Kurmitola Golf Club that saw him go top after the second round of the AB Bank Bangladesh Open yesterday. PHOTO: FIROZ AHMED

Jamal Hossain Mollah romped to the top of the leaderboard with a six-under-par (65) at the end of the second day's play of the AB Bank Bangladesh Open yesterday.

The 33-year-old golfer, who has two PGTI wins under his belt, exchanged eight birdies for one double-bogey on the rain-hit second round at the Kurmitola Golf Club.

The Kurmitola-based golfer was joined at the top of the leaderboard by Malcolm Kokocinski of Sweden while most of the other local golfers failed to fire at their home course.

Starting the day four shots off the pace, Jamal fired five birdies on the front nine under windy conditions to move to the top. However, a double bogey on the second hole of the back nine saw him lose ground before he raced back to the lead with three more birdies.

Kokocinski, the Asian Development Tour (ADT) Order of Merit leader, returned with a 66 to take a share of the lead.

The leading duo holds a one-shot advantage with a two-day total of eight-under-par (134) while Thailand's Suttijet Kooratanapisan marked the low round of the week when he carded a flawless 64 to sit in second place at the 300,000-dollar event.

Asian Tour Qualifying School graduate Ben Campbell of New Zealand, American Paul Harris and Divyanshu Bajaj of India shared fifth place on 136s following respective rounds of 66, 66 and 69 while the second-best placed Bangladeshi was Mohammad Robin at two-under-par (140).

The country's leading golfer Siddikur Rahman was a further shot behind, having finished only nine holes alongside Sajib Ali who managed to complete his round.

Play was suspended at 10.27am local time due to a thunderstorm and resumed two and a half hours later. It was later called off for the day at 6.13pm due to fading light.

A total of 72 players will resume their second rounds at 6.20am this morning with the third and penultimate round slated to start not earlier than 10.15am.

"This is my home course and I am very familiar with it. It always feels good to be playing here," Jamal told Asiantour.com at the end of day's play. "I finished well when I played the two ADT events here earlier this season. Tee shots are the key to playing well on this course. Putting has to be consistent too."

While almost everything was perfect for arguably the second-best golfer from Bangladesh yesterday, a double bogey ruined his chances of taking the solo lead at the end of the day, and he lamented the fact.

"I made only one mistake on the second hole for a double-bogey. I hit my tee shot to the left and hit my second shot with a seven-iron into the rough. Sent my third shot into the bunker from there, chipped out to greenside and then two-putted there," Jamal said.