The Hindu : Sport : McGrane leads; erratic Indians lose their way

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McGrane leads; erratic Indians lose their way

Rakesh Rao

14 Indians make the cut; Jeev Milkha Singh succumbs, Ernie Els survives

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Making it count: Ireland’s Damien McGrane shot a 69 for a two-round aggregate of 136 to lead by two strokes.

NEW DELHI: All the early optimism of an Indian mastering the $2.5 million Emaar MGF Indian Masters golf event was blown away on a cold, windy Friday with every leading home contender failing to live up to the promise at the Delhi Golf Club course here.

Jeev Milkha Singh missed the ‘cut’ with a second successive five-over 77, a score matched by overnight leader Jyoti Randhawa.

If this was not bad enough, Shiv Kapur, who shot a 68 on the first day, carded a 78 and just about escaped joining Jeev on the sidelines over the weekend.

Even as Ireland’s Damien McGrane shot a 69 for a two-round aggregate of 136 for a two-stroke lead over three contenders and World No. 4 Ernie Els survived the cut to fight another day, the Indians, collectively, had a reason to pat themselves on an otherwise gloomy day.

As many as 14 Indians, out of 31 who started on Thursday morning, made the cut that came at three-over 147.

For the record, India is the ninth nation, outside Europe to host a European Tour event and seldom has a host managed to grab so many spots for the weekend action.

Arjun Atwal and Digvijay Singh shot a second successive 70 to share the sixth spot at 140, four strokes behind the leader.

In the midst of poor scores from the Indians, Gaurav Ghei’s “satisfying round” of 69 was the day’s best.

S. S. P. Chowrasia quietly slipped in a 71 to keep alive hopes of a good finish.

However, the law of averages finally caught up with Randhawa after a highly forgettable 77, a whopping 12 strokes more than what he needed on the first day to finish 18 holes.

Starting the day with a two-stroke cushion, Randhawa straightaway dropped a shot when he started from the 10th tee. After two more bogeys, Randhawa found his first birdie on the second hole of the course even as he struggled with his putting. But the worse was to follow.

He triple-bogeyed the par-four sixth hole after losing the ball in the bushes on the left with his the tee-shot.

He then two-putted after pitching out of the greenside bunker. Clearly shaken, Randhawa could not get his focus right on the next hole and three-putted for another bogey. Though Randhawa picked up a shot on the eighth hole, he aptly described the day’s work as “disaster.”

“I would like to forget the round as soon as possible. I started losing my focus after the bogeys. But still, going into the weekend with a sub-par score, I think I still have good chance,” said an understandably dejected Randhawa. Shiv Kapur, who holds the course record of 10-under 62, admitted that he hit the ball badly and found the bushes on several occasions. “I need to be aggressive on Saturday and if I can get a 64 or a 65, I’ll be back in the race,” said Kapur, who triple-bogeyed once and double-bogeyed twice.

The scores: Damien McGrane (Ire) (67, 69) 136; Hendrik Buhrmann (RSA) (69, 69), Graeme McDowell (NIR) (69, 69), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) (69, 69) 138; Mikael Lundberg (Swe) (71, 68) 139; Jose Manuel Lara (Esp) (68, 72).

Thomas Bjorn (Den) (68, 72), Maarten Lafeber (Ned) (69, 71), Benn Barham (Eng) (69 , 71), Arjun Atwal (70, 70) and Digvijay Singh (70, 70) 140; S. S. P. Chowrasia (70, 71), Henrik Nystrom (Swe, 70, 71) and Darren Clarke (NIR) (72, 69) 141; Jyoti Randhawa (65, 77), Mark O’Meara (USA) (69, 73), Ross Bain (Sco) (71, 71), Marcus Fraser (Aus) (73, 69), Simon Wakefield (Eng) (74, 68) and Brendan Jones (Aus) (74, 68) 142.

Other Indians (who made the cut): Gaurav Ghei (75, 69), Amandeep Johl (73, 71) 144; Harmeet Kahlon (70, 75), Ashok Kumar (72, 73) 145; C. Muniyappa (69, 77), Shiv Kapur (68, 78) 146, Ali Sher (77, 70), Randhir Singh Ghotra (74, 73), Shamim Khan (73,74) and Rahul Ganapathy (76, 71) 147.

Those who missed the cut): Rahil Gangjee (72, 76), Sanjay Kumar (75, 73), Gaganjeet Bhullar (75, 73) 148; Naman Dawar (74, 75) 149; Uttam Singh Mundy (75, 75) 150.

Mukesh Kumar (73, 78), Jaiveer Virk (79, 72) 151; Arjun Singh (75, 77), Ranjit Singh (75, 77) 152; Amardip Sinh Malik (75, 78), Harinder Gupta (79, 74) 154; Jeev Milkha Singh (77, 77), Vivek Bhandari (78, 76) 154; A. S. Lehal (75, 80) 155; Vijay Kumar (76, 81) 157; Abhishek Jha (A) (78, 81) 159; Simarjeet Singh (A) (82, 79) 161.

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