Gotemba (Japan), Oct 4 (PTI) Indian quartet of Krishnav Chopraa, Vedant Sirohi, Kartik Singh and Rakshit Dahiya spent the whole of second day waiting for the weather to clear as Japan's Rintaro Nakano took the lead before play suspended at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship here Friday.
Chopraa (68), Sirohi (69), Singh (71) and Dahiya (75), all of whom played in the morning slot on the first day, were waiting till they were told that would get to tee off only on Saturday.
Nakano took a late one-stroke lead at seven-under over China's Wenyi Ding as the second round was suspended due to darkness on Friday evening at Taiheiyo Club Gotemba.
The second round was delayed by six and a half hours due to fog and heavy rain.
“There is little we can do,” said Singh, who along with Chopraa, Sirohi and Dahiya came to the course and did practice on the putting green.
“There is little one can do about this. Weather stoppages and delays are part of golf,” said Chopraa with a laugh.
“We are all used to it.”
They will all go out early in the morning on Saturday and hope to finish their second and some part of third round.
Second-round play got underway at 1 pm with the morning slot players facing damp conditions. Players in the afternoon slot did not tee off on Friday.
Nakano countered a bogey at the 14th with birdies at Nos. 13, 15 and 18 to turn at two-under on the day.
After the turn, he added a late birdie at the third, a hole he eagled on Thursday, to claim a one-stroke lead over Ding.
Ding, the highest-ranked player in the field at fifth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, made the most of the soft conditions to notch up birdies at the 13th, 16th and 18th to move to six-under and one shot back of the lead with playing partner Nakano.
“I'm going to go bed earlier,” joked Nakano after the long weather delay.
“I'm up early in the morning tomorrow, so recovery is important…Today was a long and difficult day waiting.”
Ding has made it clear that he will turn professional, even if he wins this week, which means he will forfeit his chance to play the 2025 Masters and the 2025 Open. A place in the two coveted Majors is the most sought after prize in amateur golf.
First-round leader Randy Bintang of Indonesia remained at five-under and did not begin his second round on Friday as a member of the afternoon wave.
The second round will be completed tomorrow with the leading 60 players and ties progressing to the third round.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)