MELBOURNE, Jan 10:Avani Prashanth cherished hat-tricks of birdies on both nines to card the day’s best score of 5-under 68, which propelled her to the second place on the leaderboard after the second round of the Australian Masters of Amateurs.
Avani (71-68), who dropped four shots late in the first round, had seven birdies against two bogeys and she is now 7-under for 36, just one stroke behind the leader, Japan’s Nika Ito (68-70) at the Par-73 South Golf Club.
Avani, ranked 50th in World amateur rankings, has one more round to go to make a bid for one of the most prestigious amateur titles in the region.
The 2023 Queen Sirikit Cup winner birdied the third, fourth and fifth and then birdied 10th, 11th and 12th and at that stage she was 6-under for the day.
She dropped shots on 13th and 18th but in between had a birdie on 17th, which she had bogeyed on Day 1.
India’s other players were once again struggling as Heena Kang (83-85) was 69th among women.
In the men’s section, Rohit Narwal (76-70) improved his showing and rose to T-52 up from overnight T-79. Sandeep Yadav (84-74) improved by 10 shots on his first round but was still 95th.
Max Moring of Australia (67-67) was tied for the top spot with Zackary Swanwick (67-67) at 10-under each, while Australia’s Siddharth Nadimpalli (69-67) was third at 8-under total. (PTI)