Royal Troon (Scotland), Jul 19 (PTI) Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma was hanging by a thread after fighting back with birdies on the 15th and 16th holes in the second round of the 152nd Open here on Friday.
Sharma, who turns 28 on Sunday, the final day of this edition of the Open, had two bogeys on the seventh and the ninth, which pushed him to 7-over for the tournament, as the cut looked likely at either 5-over or 6-over.
A birdie on the 12th was followed by a bogey on the 14th but he then showed his fighting abilities.
He birdied from 20 feet on the 15th and added another on the Par-5 16th to get to 5-over. Then, he gave back a shot on the 17th and dropped to 6-over and was tied 71st with one more hole to come. With 70 and ties making the cut, Sharma was still in with a chance.
As Sharma was fighting hard to stay on for the weekend, Shane Lowry moved into pole position for a second Open title, after having won his first five years ago at home in Portrush.
Lowry (66-69) was 7-under and two shots clear of two Englishmen Justin Rose (69-68) and little-known Dan Brown (65-72).
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (70-70) was lurking around in tied fourth alongside fellow American Billy Horschel (72-68) and South African Dean Burmester (71-69) at 2-under 140 for 36 holes.
Meanwhile, a bunch of bigwigs and legends made an early exit as they were swept aside by the southerly wind across the Firth of Clyde at the Royal Troon.
Tiger Woods said he would be back at Portrush, but will not play again this year till his own Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas and the PNC Father-Son tournament.
Woods shot 79-77 and was 14-over but smiled and said, “I’d like to have played more, but I just wanted to make sure that I was able to play the major championships this year. I got a lot of time off to get better, to be better physically, which has been the case all year.
“I’ve gotten better, even though my results really haven’t shown it, but physically I’ve gotten better, which is great. I just need to keep progressing like that and then eventually start playing more competitively and start getting into kind of the competitive flow again.” As for playing Majors and coming back for them, he said, “No, I loved it. I’ve always loved playing major championships. I just wish I was more physically sharp coming into the majors.
“Obviously it tests you mentally, physically, emotionally, and I just wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be. I was hoping that I would find it somehow, just never did. Consequently, my results and scores were pretty high.” On returning to Portrush for the 2025 Open, he added, “Yeah, definitely. Okay, sorry. That’s a year away.” Meanwhile, Indian-Americans Akshay Bhatia and Sahith Theegala were headed home early.
Bhatia (76-73) at 7-over was headed home while Theegala, who was 6-over for first round, was 5-over through the front nine.
Aaron Rai, the Englishman with a touch of India in him, shot 73 in the first round and was 3-over through 14 in the second to be 5-over.
Lowry, whose sole PGA Tour win this season came in the company of McIlroy, led the field as he gunned for a second Open win. He followed up an opening round of 66 with a 69 and was 7-under 135. He held a two-shot lead over Brown and Rose (69-68).
The 2019 Open winner Lowry had five bogeys against a bogey and a double bogey on the ‘infamous’ 11th hole, also called ‘Railway’. He fought back with birdies on the 16th and the 18th. PTI Cor AH AH
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