Kapur Top Indian at 8th; Sharma Misses Cut at Indonesia Masters

Jakarta, Dec 14 (PTI) Shiv Kapur holed six birdies in his first 10 holes to return with a card of six-under 66 and lie tied 8th after the weather-hit second round but Shubhankar Sharma missed the cut at the BNI Indonesian Masters here Friday.

Kapur (71-66) gave himself a chance to make a charge over the week after totalling seven-under 137, still seven shots behind the leaders.

Poom Saksansin, the winner here in 2016, had six birdies on the front nine and added three more in the last four holes to get to 14-under and three shots clear of compatriots Suradit Yongcharoenchai (66) and Jakraphan Premsirigorn (65).

Justin Rose (68-68), who can rise to world No. 1 this week if he finishes inside Top-16, is lying Tied-fifth six behind the leader, while Henrik Stenson (67-68), the 2016 Open winner, was sole fourth.

Stenson's hopes of closing the gap with Poom were dashed when he dropped two shots in his last four holes to head into the weekend rounds five shots back of Poom.

Shubhankar, who will be officially crowned Asia No. 1 on Sunday at the Tour dinner, had a birdie on his final hole of the season, but missed the cut.

"That was disappointing to miss the weekend, but the year has been great," said the 22-year-old. "I am getting ready for 2019 and it will be another busy year."

Talking about his round, the 36-year-old Kapur said: "It is not often that you shoot six under and still find yourself going further back, as Poom (Saksansin) who was playing with me seemed to holing from all over the places.

"I putted well through the first 10 holes, which was way better than first day, but I lost the momentum on the back nine."

The second round was suspended due to fading light at 5.50pm, leaving 20 players having to return at 6.20am to complete their rounds on Saturday morning. The cut line was currently set at even par.

While Kapur is the best Indian, Anirban Lahiri, also a former winner here in 2014, missed a whole bunch of makeable putts during his card of 72.

He was two-under through nine and stayed there till the 13th. He dropped shots on 14th and 15th to fall back and ended with 72 and was T-21.

Lahiri was disappointed at missing so many putts.

"I didn't make anything today. Lip outs, sliding past and so on. The wind was like more than 30 kilometres per hour. That made at least a difference of three to four shots between playing in morning and afternoon."

SSP Chawrasia was another one to drop a lot of shots in the closing stretch as he bogeyed three times between 14th and 17th and finished at 70 to lie T-26th.

Viraj Madappa (73-69) was T-34th, Rahil Gangjee (71-71) was T-41 and M Dharma was T-54 with one hole to finish when the hooter went off due to fading light, Khalin Joshi and S Chikkarangappa (71-73) were Tied-54th.

Arjun Atwal (71-74) and Aman Raj (72-73) were one-over and will need to wait for the second round to finish on Saturday morning, to know their fate.

Currently Tied-67th could make it to the final two rounds with a bit of luck.

Jeev Milkha Singh (71-75), Udayan Mane (four-over for the tournament with four to play), Shubhankar (76-72), Ajeetesh Sandhu (73-76) and Honey Baisoya (73-81) missed the cut.

Gaganjeet Bhullar pulled out even before the first round on account of an injury.

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