El Jadida, Morocco, June 6: Karandeep Kochhar, who has two Asian Tour runner-up finishes in his career, was in strong contention for a breakthrough win as he hung in for a second round card of 1-over 73 in tricky wind conditions at the US $500,000 am green IGPL Bharath Classic. The Chandigarh golfer, who has racked up six Top-5 finishes on the Tour, has had two of them this season itself, looks ready to make a charge over the weekend.
At a total of 5-under following rounds off 66-73, Kochhar is now Tied-fifth and four shots of the lead jointly held by Thais Settee Prakongvech (70-65) and Runchanapong Youprayong (65-70). The Thai duo was three shots clear of Niklas Regner (66-72) and another Thai, Ekpharit Wu (71-67). Also tied at fifth with Kochhar were Indian teenager, Kartik Singh (70-69), Philippines’ Lloyd Jefferson Go (71), American MJ Maguire (70), Sweden’s Charlie Lindh (70), South African Ian Snyman (72), and New Zealand’s Nick Voke (72). They were all at 5-under at the event co-sanctioned by AM Green IGPL and the Asian Tour.
The next-best Indians were amateur Jai Bahl (71-72) and Yashas Chandra (75-68), at 1-under for 36 holes. Shaurya Bhattacharya (70-74) and Raghav Chugh (70-74) were tied 40th at even par.
The 11-time Asian Tour winner, Gaganjeet Bhullar (75-70), IGPL’s 2025 Order of Merit winner, Pukhraj Singh Gill (74-71), and two-time Asian Tour winner, Rashid Khan (74-71) were Tied-49th. Three other AM Green IGPL winners, Udayan Mane (70-76), Sachin Baisoya (72-74) and Aman Raj (72-74) were Tied-61st.
Kochhar, a winner in an ADT event in Egypt last year, which helped him get to the main Asian Tour, started on the tenth, and was 1-under through 12 holes before he had two late birdies on the fourth and ninth holes, which pulled him over par.
He said, “I got a little unlucky on the last. Just had a small putt of four-odd feet. I thought I hit a good putt, but it just went the other way.
Definitely, don’t want to finish with a three-putt on the last, but I still think I played really well. Maybe, missed two small putts coming in,” said Kochhar, who earlier holed a long 30-footer putt for birdie on the 17th hole. Would have loved to have those two short putts back, but other than that, I’m not too concerned. The putting actually has been very good because I’ve worked on it a lot over the weekend.”
Coming into the week after five missed cuts, Settee seemed to have found his touch. The 31-year-old made four birdies on the front nine, and despite the wind he added three more on the back nine. Settee, who played in the morning session, overcame the windy conditions at the Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort course while putting together a bogey-free seven-under par 65, which carried him to nine-under par total after two rounds. He was joined by overnight leader Runchanapong, who survived a double bogey-bogey stretch in his 70
Another Thai player, Ekpharit Wu, winner of the Taiwan Glass Taifong Open last year, also played well in the windy conditions, shooting a 67 to move into a tie for third place at six-under par alongside Austrian Niklas Regner (72)
Ayoub Lguirati was the top Moroccan player after a solid round of 67 lifted him to tied 12th place at four-under par. Prominent Indians missing the cut were SSP Chawrasia, Milind Soni, M Dharma, all by one shot while Varun Parikh and Aryan Roopa Anand fell short by two. The tournament, which forms part of the Asian Tour’s three-week visit to Morocco, is co-sanctioned by Am Green IGPL
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