India’s Anirban Lahiri found himself in the company of three of the world’s top-10 golfers in Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama, along with five-time major-winner Phil Mickelson, who missed the weekend cut in the Players Championship on Friday.
Lahiri slumped to a mid-round tumble that saw him fall from a comfortable 3-under and tied 27th in the first round to miss the weekend cut of one-under par by one shot after the second at the Players Championships at Ponte Vedra, USA.
Lahiri (69-75) was lying at T-80 with more than half the field yet to complete but ended up with an even par. The Indian stumbled in the second round after making a great start with birdies on sixth and seventh, which saw him rise to 5-under and tied-8th at that early stage on Friday.
A missed par-putt on eighth saw him drop his first bogey on the day, but the ninth may well have been the turning point of the day. The bogey on Par-5 ninth after missing par from 12 feet was a disappointment. Then came a three-putt on 10th and that ruined the day and the round.
The short birdie miss on 11th and then a bad swing on Par-3 15th, which Lahiri called as “pretty much the only bad swing all day”, were followed by a bogey on 16th, which was the final straw. “It was like a two-shot swing, from a birdie chance to bogey,” he said.
Still Lahiri did well to par the 17th and 18th. “I did not wake advantage of the Par-5s like I should. I didn’t put myself in the right positions and I allowed the momentum to slip away after being 2-under through 7 in second round. I three-putted on nine and allowed things to get away from me on 10 and 11 and so on.”
He added, “Looking at positives, my game trended in the right direction, except that I did not score well again. But I did hit better shots at times. I can taste it that my game is just around the corner.”
Webb Simpson’s bid for a 59 ended agonisingly with a ball in the water guarding the famed island green at 17 on Friday, but his record-equalling 63 gave him a five-shot lead after the second round.
Former US Open champion Simpson, 32, had tournament officials delving into the history books when he birdied six holes in succession from the 11th through 16th holes at TPC Sawgrass, storming to 17-under par and a seven-shot lead ont he field.
But his tee shot at the par-three 17th hit the wooden bulkhead surrounding the green, soaring high into the air before hitting the surface and rolling into the drink.
Simpson played his third shot from the drop zone en route to a humbling double-bogey five. It was the only blemish in a course-record equalling round that included an eagle at the second hole and nine birdies.
Simpson’s 15-under total of 129 equalled the 36-hole tournament record set by Jason Day in 2015 and gave him a five-shot lead over South African Charl Schwartzel (66), New Zealand’s Danny Lee (66) and Patrick Cantlay (68).
Tiger Woods settled for a one-under par 71 and then endured an anxious afternoon wait before knowing he had made the cut on the number of one-under. Woods hit just 12 greens in regulation and was never inside 10 feet with his approach shots.
With inputs from PTI and AFP
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