Augusta (Georgia): Anirban Lahiri battled tough weather conditions and somewhat inconsistent breaks in the second round as he made the cut for the weekend at the prestigious Augusta Masters.
The Indian ace made the cut at T-47th. Lahiri, who shot four-over 76 in the first round, began well to be two-under through 12 holes, before three bogeys pulled him down to one-over 73 and a total of five-over 149.
At that stage, he was in danger of missing the cut, which looked likely at four-over 148.
However, as conditions worsened with gusty winds going upwards 20-25 miles per hour, scores began to drop and the cut finally fell at six-over 150, giving Lahiri a chance to improve upon his previous best of T-49 achieved on his debut last year.
Lahiri will play his third round alongside two-time Major winner, Martin Kaymer of Germany, who shot 74-75. Fans dreaming of a Jordan Spieth v Rory McIlroy clash on Sunday will get it a day early, as Spieth stayed in lead at four-under for the sixth consecutive round at the Masters, going back to the first round of 2015 editions. Meanwhile McIlroy seeking the only Major he does not possess, is at three-under.
Between the two they experienced highs and lows If McIlroy dropped from four-under to even par and then again rose to three-under by the finish, Spieth at one time was five clear of the field, but by the end was just one ahead of McIlroy.
Spieth’s sudden drop also gave Bubba Watson a chance to redeem himself after twos 75s, as he made the cut on the basis of being 10 or less off the lead, apart from the Top-50 and ties. Lahiri was happy to have gotten another chance, but disappointed at the way his scoring went in the second round.
He said,”It was like swimming against the tide. I don’t think I did much wrong. It was just that things didn’t go my way. On the 13th approach, I caught the gust and it went over, and on the 15th, I played for the wind, but it went through and over. In both cases I ended with bogeys.
“I just didn’t score on the Par-fives, it is something that I need to work on.”
He added,”I putted better on the front nine, than the back nine. On 16 and 17 I missed something like eight-footers.
I have not played badly, but I have been able to score better, missing all those 8-10 footers.
“Still with the wind blowing, I think the scoring is going to be tough, so let’s if five-over makes it. I really want to stay on.”
At that time, he was still not sure as many of the players had not come in.
PTI
