India’s Shubhankar Sharma and Gaganjeet Bhullar both climbed four places each after the second round of the men’s golf competition at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Friday to be ranked T25 and T52, respectively.

Having ended the first day at Le Golf National at T29, Shubhankar carded a 2-under 69 in round 2 to move up the leaderboard.

The Indian golfer sunk two eagles and as many birdies over the 18 holes while enduring four bogies. Sharma is now in a five-way tie for the 25th place with Kristoffer Ventura of Norway, Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti, Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen and the People’s Republic of China’s Dou Zecheng

A former Asian No. 1 and Asian Games silver medal winner, Sharma, 36, is making his Olympic debut.

Meanwhile, fellow Summer Games debutant Bhullar also managed a 2-under score on the day which helped him recover from the disappointing 4-over card from the opening round. He currently stands T52 with a total score of 2-over 144.

Bhullar’s course on Friday featured five birdies and three bogeys.

After the second day of stroke play, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, who lost in a play-off for the bronze at Tokyo 2020, managed to hold on to his position at the top of the 60-man field but has been joined by USA’s Xander Schauffele, the defending champion, and Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood.

All three are on 11-under and the competition is only expected to intensify in the final two rounds.

India’s best finish in the men’s golf event at the Olympics is T42 by Anirban Lahiri, recorded at Tokyo 2020.

Indian women golfers Diksha Dagar and Aditi Ashok will tee off at the same venue from August 7. Aditi Ashok, an Asian Games silver medallist, narrowly missed a medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, finishing fourth.

Golf featured in the Olympic program in 1900 and 1904 but was dropped from the itinerary after that. The sport made a return at Rio 2016 and has been part of the Olympics since.