Jamshedpur, Dec 18 (PTI) Harendra Gupta carded a remarkable nine-under-63 to climb to the top of the leaderboard at the end of the second day of the Tata Steel Tour Championship here on Friday.

The 36-year-old is now 17-under-127 after two bogey-free rounds.

SSP Chawrasia, a three-time winner here, fired the best round of the tournament so far, an astonishing 11-under-61, to move into second place at 16-under-128 at the Rs 1.5 crore PGTI event.

Amardeep Malik produced a 66 to be placed third at 15-under-129 at the halfway stage, while round one leader Chikkarangappa slipped to fourth place at 14-under-130 after a round of 68.

Gaganjeet Bhullar shot 63 to move up to tied fifth at 12-under-132 along with Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (67) and Arjun Prasad (68).

The halfway cut went at two-under-142 and 53 professionals made it to the money rounds.

Harendra (64-63) recorded the joint best score at Golmuri in round two. He had played through pain and was limping during his first round due to a groin injury but was in a much better physical condition on day two.

The five-time winner on the PGTI circuit reaped the rewards of some accurate hitting with early birdies on the second, third and fourth, finding the edge of the green with his drive on the fourth.

However, it was the back-nine where he really turned it on as he picked up an eagle on the 12th and four more birdies. One of the highlights of his round was the birdie on the 15th where he made an excellent recovery from the trees with a brilliant seven-iron second shot that landed 12 feet from the pin.

"Beldih is the tougher course to score on so I feel I had an advantage having started with an eight-under at Beldih in round one. In fact, I feel my injury was a blessing in disguise as it helped me focus better in round one," Harendra said.

"I've not struck such low numbers in a long time so I'm quite pleased with my effort so far," he added.

Chawrasia (67-61) took the tournament by storm in the second round. The seasoned golfer, who was tied 13th, came up with two eagles, nine birdies and two bogeys. He found 12 out of 14 fairways, made 17 greens in regulation and had a total of 25 putts.

"It's the lowest number I've ever shot. After being three-under on the first three holes I knew I was looking at a really low number but I could've never imagined a score of 11-under," Chawrasia said.

Jyoti Randhawa (65), Rahil Gangjee (64), PGTI Order of Merit leader Karandeep Kochhar (68) and Akshay Sharma (63) were all tied eighth at 11-under-133.

Anirban Lahiri (69) was a further shot back in 12th, Rashid Khan (64) was tied 14th at eight-under-136 while Shiv Kapur (69) was tied 19th at seven-under-137.

Last year's champion Udayan Mane missed the cut having totaled even-par-144 over the first two days.

(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)