Seongnam (Korea), May 6 (PTI) Indian golfer Viraj Madappa holed an ace on way to the day's best card of six-under 65 to zoom to tied-fourth at the halfway stage of the GS Caltex Maekyung Open here on Friday.

Madappa, who shot even par 71 on the first day, is now 6-under and one shot behind the leading trio from Korea, Bio Kim (67-68), Dongmin Lee (65-70) and amateur Minhyuk Song (69-66).

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It was a good day for the Indian contingent as seven of the nine goflers in the field made the cut.

Khalin Joshi added 68 to his first round 71 and at three-under was T-11, while Veer Ahlawat (71-71) was T-27.

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Honey Baisoya (72-71) birdied his final hole to get to T-38, while Gaganjeet Bhullar (70-74) was going fine till he found a double bogey and finished with a round of 74 and was now T-51 alongside S Chikkarangappa (73-71).

Karandeep Kochhar (70-75) squeezed inside the cut line and was T-63. However Shiv Kapur (76-72) and Aman Raj (80-75) missed out on weekend action.

Madappa, who also made the Indian team for the Asian Games, which have now been postponed, was pleasantly surprised by the hole-in-one.

"It was actually anticlimactic, because I thought the ball went long but it ended up going in the hole. We were actually looking for the ball and ended up looking in the hole thankfully.

"This is my first time around here and I'm really enjoying this place. It's a great test, the conditions are great."

As for the leaders, Bio Kim had five birdies and a double bogey, while Dongmin Lee had three birdies and two bogeys. Minhyuk had six birdies and one birdie in his 66.

Kim grew up playing top-level amateur golf at the legendary Namseoul Country Club course and made his debut on the Asian Tour when he tied fourth in the 2007 GS Caltex Maekyung Open before claiming equal third the following year. On both occasions he was still an amateur.

And as a member of the professional ranks, he has also posted five other top-five finishes in addition to his victory a decade ago when the event was not on the Asian Tour schedule.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)