India’s Shiv Kapur shot a fine five-under 67 to make an upward move that put him in line for a good finish at the 100th New Zealand Open golf tournament in Queenstown.
Kapur, who won three times in 2017, shot six birdies against one bogey that took him to nine-under to jump to tied-17th from tied-26th overnight.
Among others, S Chikkarangappa (68) moved one place up to tied 25th after being tied with Kapur overnight. The third Indian in fray, Ajeetesh Sandhu shot two-under 70 and is now placed tied 42th.
Dagar makes the cut in Canberra
Diksha Dagar displayed her consistency with a second straight round of one-under 70 to make the cut at the ACTWEAGL Canberra Classic on Saturday.
With rounds of 70-70, Diksha was two-under at 140, tied 23rd and nine shots behind the leaders, Slovenia’s Katja Pogacar (64) and Dutch Anne Van Damm (63), at the Royal Canberra.
The leaders were 11-under and breathing down their neck was Carly Booth of Scotland who shot six-under 65 to be third.
The 18-year-old Haryana golfer, Dagar, starting from the tenth got her first birdie on the 11th and parred the next 10 till the fourth, which she bogeyed. Birdies on fifth and seventh brought her to two-under par, but a late bogey on eighth, her penultimate hole of the day, saw her finish at one-under 70.
India’s other players Vani Kapoor (72-75), Tvesa Malik (76-74), Amandeep Drall (73-78) and Astha Madan (77-76) missed the cut, which fell at one-over and 58 players including one amateur made the cut.
Dagar played at the Asian Games as an amateur in August and then turned pro and played the Australian Qualifying tournament to earn a limited status after finishing T-30.
Dagar has had a fairly fruitful start with a tied-12th at the 36-hole Ballarat Icons Pro-Am and was tied-44th at the Australian Ladies Classic at Bonville. She missed the halfway cut at the ISPS Handa Vic Open. A good finish at the Canberra Classic will help her grow confidence as she has also got an entry into the one-day International Moss Vale Pro-Am next week.
Lahiri finds form
Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri fired an even-par round of 70, but dropped a few places to tied 13th at the midway stage of the Honda Classic at the PGA National in Florida.
Lahiri, whose best finish this season has been tied 10th at the Mayakoba Classic in early November, has missed his last two cuts at the Desert Classic and the Genesis Open.
So, to find his putting form and make the cut in a decent position in this event on Friday, was indeed a good beginning before the upcoming weekend.
Lahiri is three-under and tied 13th alongside first round leader, Jhonattan Vegas (64-73), wile Korean Sungjae Im and American Keith Mitchell are tied for the lead at six-under.
In his second round at the Honda Classic, Lahiri hit nine of 14 fairways and nine of 18 greens in regulation, and had another fine day on the greens missing no putts within 10 feet. He also had a nice 26-footer for par on the 10th, which was his first hole of the day.
Majority of his putts were inside five to six feet as his approaches were excellent and in case of long putts, he made the first one nicely to get inside three to four feet. As for the bogeys, on the 14th (his fifth hole) he went into the fairway bunker of the tee and did not get to the green from there.
On 16th too, he went into the rough in the second shot and from there he hit to 14 feet from the flag but missed the par putt from there.
On par-3 17th, Lahiri found the green but was 57 feet away from the hole. His first putt saw him get safely to two and a half feet for par and on 18th, he hit a beautiful pitch to three and a half feet for a birdie.
On the second nine, he had six straight pars followed by a nice tee on par-3 seventh to inside eight feet, which he holed for a birdie to reach even par.
The cut fell at two-over 142 and 83 players made it, meaning there will be a third round cut too, since there are more than 78 players making the cut. The top 70 and ties will make the 54-hole cut.
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