The Hindu : Sport / Golf : Arjun Atwal soars to 11th spot

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Sunday, Jun 03, 2007
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Arjun Atwal soars to 11th spot

Glenview (U.S.): Arjun Atwal got off to a blazing start and returned a sparkling second round card of six-under 66 to soar to tied 11th at the $750,000 LaSalle Bank Open golf championship on the U.S. Nationwide golf tour.

Atwal reeled off five birdies over the first six holes and in fact could have barged into the top 10 at the half-way stage but for two closing bogeys.

Veteran Omar Uresti, who shot a bogey-free nine-under 63, grabbed the lead at 11-under 133.

Overnight 43rd, Atwal started on back nine and birdied the 10th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th holes and overcame the double bogey on the 18th with an eagle on the first.

He then added three more birdies on the second, fifth and sixth and was eight-under at that stage.

Atwal, however, lost the momentum towards the end and bogeys on the eighth and ninth holes meant he finished four shots behind Uresti.

At Celtic Manor, Jyoti Randhawa soared to the tied 32nd place with an impressive second round of three-under 66, while compatriot Shiv Kapur too made the cut with an even-par round at the midway stage of the Celtic Manor Wales Open.

Sweden's Mads Vibe-Hastrup leads the tournament at eight-under 130 after a sizzling round of 63.

Randhawa sunk the lone birdie of his bogey-free front nine on the third hole and added an eagle on the 16th before a closing bogey slightly pushed him back. The Indian is now three-under 135 for two days at the 6,743-yard Roman Road course as he moved from overnight tied 52nd to 32nd.

Kapur, who stays for the weekend action with his two-day total of 137, found the birdies all right but he couldn't stop the bogeys either.

Jeev crashes out

At Dublin, Jeev Milkha Singh fell by the wayside after a roller-coaster second round even though Indian-born Swede Daniel Chopra made the cut to hang on for the weekend action at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio.

Jeev stuttered to his second successive round of 76 for a two-day total of 152 and crashed out.

In contrast, Chopra's even-par 72 took his tally to 143, which was enough to finish on the right side of the cut line. At the top of the table, Australian golfers dominating the leaderboard with Adam Scott (132) shooting a sizzling 62 to lead the event at 12-under, one stroke ahead of fellow Aussie Rod Pampling (68).

Jeev had a very up and down round. Starting with bogeys on the first and third holes, he birdied the eighth but dropped a shot again on the 10th.

He then eagled the 11th to come to par but bogeyed the 12th. The lone birdie of the disastrous back nine came on the 14th before Jeev dropped four shots over the last three holes — bogeys on the 16th, 17th and a double on the 18th. . — PTI

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