01 June 2019: On another day of mixed fortunes for Indian golfers, Anirban Lahiri and Shubhankar Sharma mixed the good, bad and ugly all in a day’s work at the Memorial Tournament inside the Muirfield Village Golf Club. Entrenched inside the top ten at the end of the first round, Anirban stumbled to a 76 that dropped him to T44, but not before he fought tooth and nail for sanity after a disastrous start. Shubhankar’s round contained an albatross (double eagle two on the par-5, fifth hole) and two birdies, but he also conceded a double bogey and three other bogeys to negate all the good work.
Kyoung-Hoon Lee (67), Troy Merritt (66) and Martin Kaymer (68) bunched at the top to lead by one from Jordan Spieth and Bud Cauley, both of who made 70 in the second round. The leaders are at nine-under 135 through 36 holes.
Brian Stuard (65), Lee and Kevin Streelman (68) were the only three golfers that managed to keep their sheet clean on Friday.
The albatross by Shubhankar at the par-5 fifth was the fifth such score on the PGA TOUR this season. Shubhankar also made an albatross on the fourth hole at the RCGC in 2014 during the final round of the McLeod Russel Championship on the PGTI TOUR.
Shubhankar mixed up with his double eagle two at the fifth with two other birdies, which came at the 6th and 15th holes. Unfortunately, though, he also made a double bogey at the 14th and two other bogeys at the 11th and 18th holes to content himself with a one-under 71.
Anirban began his second round at the 10th hole and it started to dissolve into a mess pretty soon. He made four consecutive bogeys from the 11th before punctuating the bleeding with a birdie at the 15th hole. The relief was temporary though, as he made another bogey at the 16th hole.
But the pugnacious Indian kept his head down and battled through the remainder of the round with no further damage to sign on a 76. Coming on the heels of a spectacular 67 on Thursday, the second must have left Anirban seething with agony and frustration. But he has played some good golf this week and one hopes that he can put that away as a bad day at the office and return for some more positive golf this weekend.
- The albatross at the par-5 fifth hole was the first ever at the Memorial Tournament. All four par-5 holes on the Muirfield course have conceded at least one such score now
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Five-time Memorial Tournament winner Tiger Woods makes cut for 17th time in as many starts at this event
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Three players share the second-round lead at the Memorial Tournament for the first time since 2004
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K.H. Lee poised to become the third Korean-born player to win on TOUR in the last four weeks
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Troy Merritt seeking to win the week before the RBC Canadian Open for the second-consecutive season
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Martin Kaymer seeking first PGA TOUR victory since winning THE PLAYERS Championship and U.S. Open in 2014
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Jordan Spieth enters the third round trailing by just one stroke as he makes his 45thTOUR start since his last win
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Reigning FedExCup champion Justin Rose moves to T10 following 9-under 63
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Jason Kokrak made the cut for a PGA TOUR-leading 23rd consecutive time
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Notables missing the cut include Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Matt Kuchar, Jason Day, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau
