Calcutta: When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

Cliched it may sound, but after Day II of the PGTI's year-ending McLeod Russel Tour Championship, this goes perfectly with one Jyoti Randhawa.

The wind was playing havoc at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club on Friday, but Randhawa drew strength from his European Tour experience and returned with a card of seven-under. He now has a commanding four-stroke lead at 11-under-133, while Bangalore duo of Khalin Joshi and Seenappa Chikkarangappa were next best on the leaderboard at seven-under-137.

It was a great performance by Randhawa. On Thursday, Rahil Gangjee had predicted that a 12-under or 14-under would be enough to win the title. But, Randhawa showed if you have the class and the experience, even elements can't stop you.

With Chitrangada Singh and son Zoravar cheering, Randhawa - the joint overnight leader along with four others - came out all guns blazing on Friday, as he made two chip-ins in quick succession on the second and fourth, the first for a birdie and the second for eagle.

"I am probably playing the best golf of the last 10 years... Everything is falling into place. Mentally also, I am in a good space. The wind worked to my advantage as I'm used to playing in such conditions, having played in Europe for seven years. My experience helped me negotiate the weather conditions. I'm now looking at repeating this effort over the last two days. I'll look to keep the intensity going," former Asia No. 1 said.

Randhawa made his only error on the 10th where he overshot the green with his approach and as a result dropped a bogey. He then collected his second eagle of the day on the 15th and three more birdies on the last seven holes to end up with a seven-under. He landed his second shot within six feet for eagle on the par-5 15th before signing off with a 12-feet birdie conversion on the 18th.

For the record, Randhawa won his last title in March 2012. "I sorted out some errors in my hitting today and was swinging it well. To me, Friday was tougher than Thursday. But I capitalised on both the par-5s with eagles. I felt I played the stretch from the 15th to 18th really well. It was a very satisfying round, I must say."

Khalin Joshi (70-67), a winner on the PGTI this year, sought to put behind the disappointment of recently missing out on his Asian Tour exemption by two spots, with a solid 67 that included seven birdies and two bogeys.

"I haven't been striking it well but my putter was hot today. I made three long birdie putts from 15 to 20 feet. I still feel I need to hit it closer to stay in the hunt this week.

"The back-nine offers more scoring opportunities and I made it count today. Jyoti will be the man to catch since he's playing really well," said Joshi, who climbed four places form his overnight tied sixth.

Chikkarangappa (68-69), the overnight joint leader, mixed five birdies with two bogeys for his 69 to drop to joint second. Chikka, placed second in the Rolex Ranking, however, is still on course for the Rolex Player of the Year title as the leader Mukesh Kumar (73) of Mhow lies a distant tied 20th at one-under-143.

Rahil Gangjee, who was part of the five-way lead in round one, slipped to tied fourth at six-under-138 after his second round of 70. Om Prakash Chouhan (68) of Mhow shared fourth place with Gangjee.

Defending champion Shankar Das was bunched together with Gaurav Pratap Singh and Amardip Sinh Malik in tied sixth at five-under-139.

Before tee off in the morning, Shankar was upset after he was stopped by the securityman from entering the club lawns for not carrying the players' card. But a McLeod Russel official rushed in and sorted out the matter after giving Shankar another card.

Still, Shankar was seething with anger as he felt he was humiliated. "Sad that I was asked to produce the player's card to enter the lawns of my home course," he said.

However, in the evening, RCGC captain Aditya Khaitan said: "Each player has been given a card and is allowed to bring one guest.

Earlier, we have seen too many people crowding the lawns. Hence we have decided to follow certain norms."

Well, in that case, Shankar could have followed the rule which others like Randhawa and Chikkarangappa are doing.