Teen Prodigy Veer Ganapathy Leads IGPL Mauritius by Two Shots

Overnight co-leader Sachin Baisoya (67-71) slipped on the very last hole of the second round, and it gave Ganapathy the pole position and put him in a prime place to make a bid for the title.

The 18-year-old left-handed Bangalore golfer, who shot 67 on Day 1, was even par after the front nine at the Anahita Golf Course but landed three birdies on the back nine. They included birdies on the 16th and the 18th, to card 3-under 69 and moved to 8-under total after 36 holes.

The first-round co-leader, Baisoya (67-71), who was tied for the lead after 17 holes, bogeyed the Par-5 18th, and his playing partner Ganapathy birdied it. That two-shot swing saw Ganapathy move into the sole lead by two shots as Baisoya fell to 6-under. There were three other players, former two-time All India Amateur champion Aryan Roopa Anand (71-70), Ridhima Dilawari (69-72), and Milind Soni (69-72), at 3-under for two rounds and are Tied-third.

None of the top five have tasted success on the IGPL, but the next two at 2-under total and Tied-sixth, Aman Raj (73-69) and Kapil Kumar (74-68) did win in the 2025 season.

In the team competition, RVR Delhi moved into the top spot with a two-round two-player total of 7-under, while Phoenix Hyderabad are second at one shot behind, alongside Atri Mumbai.

With the conditions at Anahita continuing to be challenging, only four other players, WGAI pro Amandeep Drall (69-74), Udayan Mane (70-73), rookie Sukhman Singh (71-72), and Shaurya Binu (75-68) were under par at 1-under total each. They were Tied-eighth. Only a total of 12 players are in red numbers, indicating how challenging the course has been with the windy conditions and demanding greens.

Among the big stars, who were outside Top-10 of the scoreboard were 2025 IGPL Rankings topper, Pukhraj Gill (72-72), SSP Chawrasia (73-71) and Gaurav Ghei (74-70) at T-12; Shiv Kapur (70-73) at T-20; Karandeep Kochhar (73-73) at T-22 and Gaganjeet Bhullar (73-74) at T-29.

The top local player was the 27-year-old Pierre Pellegrin, who also plays on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa. Pellegrin, after a first round of 8-over 80, bounced back with a card of 8-under 64 to rise to T-12 at even par for two days. He moved up 43 places with his second round, which was 16 shots better than his first round.

With just one more round to go in the second event of the 2026 calendar, there are just 18 holes between Ganapathy and a breakthrough win as a professional. Last season, Veer, son of former Indian Tour pro, Rahul Ganapathy, who is his coach, was twice runner-up. Now he has a handy lead of three shots over.

Ganapathy said, "I have been putting well, and that worked for me again today, especially on the back nine. I have contended in the past, and I know the more I put myself in this position, the more chances I will have," said Veer, who was adjudged as the "Young Turk" of the 2025 IGPL season.

Chasing him hard is 'Mr. Consistent' Baisoya, whose closing hole bogey was magnified by Ganapathy's birdie on the same hole. Baisoya had multiple finishes in the Top 3 last season and was fourth in the 2025 IGPL Rankings. The former National Games gold medallist has won four times as a pro in India but is looking for his first win on the IGPL Tour. He knows a two-shot lead can disappear in just a hole, and he will need a good and consistent start to have a chance to lift an IGPL Trophy for the first time.

Aryan Roopa Anand at one stage looked like getting close to Ganapathy, but a closing triple bogey on the tricky Par-5 18th brought him down from 5-under for the day to 2-under. He has a 3-under total for two days and is in third place.

Milind Soni is eyeing his first Top-10 finish in the IGPL, and Ridhima is the top woman in the field as Amandeep Drall dropped to Tied-eighth. With the course and weather conditions being rather challenging, the final day could be a humdinger, and mistakes can prove costly.

- IANS