NORTH BERWICK (Scotland), Jul 8: Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri is likely to miss the cut as he was lying T-86 after the unfinished second round at the Genesis Scottish Open, which is being co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour for the first time.
Lahiri carded a second straight 72 in the second round, which is yet to be completed, with the afternoon wave long way from finish.
At four-over 144, Lahiri was some distance from the cut that is likely to fall at two-over or at worst three-over at the USD 8 million event.
Shubhankar Sharma, who was T-28 at the end of the first round, began the second round from the 10th with two pars and a birdie on Par-3 12th, where he holed a 13-footer for birdie. He was due to finish late in the evening.
Lahiri returned to Links golf after three years and he admitted it showed.
“I didn’t play poorly but made a lot of small mistakes and compounded the errors. Today (Round 2) I struggled with my body, it was not 100%. It was a bit tight. I missed a lot of irons early, started off a little wobbly, that didn’t help. I did have a good period of play in the middle but not enough.”
“All in all, I played the par-5s really badly; made 3 bogeys on them. Those are the holes you have to take advantage of. Round one there were mistakes of judgement; then on the fescue, it has been a while since I played on it and it showed.
“It was just a lot of little things that led to bogeys, then double bogeys and it all added up to a lot of black numbers. Disappointing, but still nice to be back here.”
On the conditions and the draw, Lahiri said, “Well, we saw the difference in average scoring between the morning and afternoon waves and it was around three shots. That is a huge amount.”
It was the difference between making and missing the cut for many including Lahiri. “That’s golf for you. It is what it is.”
After closing the first day with a bogey late in the evening, Lahiri opened the second day bogey-bogey and that put a lot of pressure. He birdied fourth and seventh before dropping a bogey on Par-5 10th and another on Par-5 16th. It was the second time in two days he had dropped a shot on Par-5 16th. Two pars at the end meant an early exit.
Lahiri plans to go back home and work with his coach, Vijay Divecha, and return to the US after a few weeks ahead of the FedExCup play-offs. (PTI)