Anirban Lahiri shot four birdies with a double bogie in the second round to score two-under-70. A perfect round was somewhat hurt when Anirban conceded a double bogey on the sixth hole, as he approached the end of his round. However, the Indian finished on a positive note with a birdie on the ninth hole to set up an exciting weekend in the Sanderson Farms Championship.
In his debut at the Country Club of Jackson, Keegan Bradley made three straight birdies on the back nine to take the lead and closed with another short birdie putt for a 7-under 65 to take a two-shot lead over J.T. Poston and Charley Hoffman.
Lahiri also made birdies at 12th, 13th, and 15th holes on his way out after starting the round on the second stretch.
Hitting only three fairways at Country Club of Jackson in Mississippi, the 33-year-old carded four birdies against a double bogey for a two-day total of 8-under 136 to trail leader Keegan Bradley by five shots heading into the weekend. Bradley, a four-time PGA TOUR winner, fired a 65 to lead by two from J.T. Poston.
Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan returned a 69 which featured five birdies against two bogeys for a share of 24th position on 139 while Korea’s Si Woo Kim (69), Sungjae Im (70) and K.H. Lee (73) all made the halfway cut set at 141.
Starting from the 10th hole, Lahiri started his round nicely with birdies on Hole Nos. 12, 13 and 15. He made his first gain with a 25-foot conversion and then hit exquisite approach shots to five inches and two feet for his next two birdies.
An error on the sixth proved costly. After missing the fairway, Lahiri landed in the greenside bunker and he needed four more shots to get into the hole for a double bogey six before signing off with a 10-foot birdie on his last hole.
“I just didn’t hit enough fairways. The wind kept swirling and it was a guessing game between the lies and the wind all day. Lost my concentration around the turn and just had to grind it out,” said Lahiri, a former Asian Tour No. 1.
He arrived this week with renewed confidence after finishing tied sixth at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship on Sunday, which was his first top-10 on the PGA TOUR in nearly two years. The strong finish got him into this week’s field and the Indian star intends to at least maintain his place on the leaderboard, if not challenge for the title this weekend, to get into next week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Vegas through the top-10 exemption.
“I got in a good practice session afterwards, so I’m looking to improve my play over the weekend,” said Lahiri, who is featuring in his sixth straight season on the PGA TOUR.
Keegan Bradley likes the way he’s putting. He must really like the idea that the birdie putts he made Friday on his way to a 7-under 65 were not terribly far from the hole.
Bradley, whose victory in the BMW Championship at Aronimink two years ago was his only title in the last eight years, was at 13-under 131.
Poston made five birdies on the back nine for a 67, while Hoffman shot 69.
“I had a blast today playing,” Bradley said. “It’s so fun to be done with the round, done with 36 holes and say, `Man, that was a fun time.’ Sometimes it’s not fun at all. What a great day, and I’m bringing a lot to the weekend that I’m happy about.”
It hasn’t been much fun in the last year for Bradley, who won the PGA Championship as a rookie. He hasn’t had a top 10 since his runner-up finish at the Travelers Championship in June 2019. But he likes how he’s playing and how he’s putting on the fast, pure Bermuda greens.
Also having a blast is M.J. Daffue of South Africa, who gets by on Monday qualifiers and is giving himself another chance. Daffue was a Monday qualifier for the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village, birdied his last hole of the second round to make the cut and tied for 22nd. This was his third time Monday qualifying since July.
Daffue, a 31-year-old who played college golf at Lamar, goes week-to-week, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for him to avoid looking ahead.
“Trying to do everything at once — get all those points at once or trying to win — it will really eat at you,” Daffue said. “So I’m just trying to chip away at it. I’m in a good position. Try to get to a target score for the week and just keep hitting the shots and try to hit good putts.”
Kevin Chappell, among four players who shared the lead after the first round, appeared to be on his way to setting a target in the morning and getting some separation. He followed a 64 with five birdies on the front nine — along with a bogey on the par-5 fifth hole — to reach 12 under.
But then he three-putted the 10th. He chopped his way along the left side of the par-5 11th and made double bogey on the third-easiest hole at Country Club of Jackson. He dropped another shot on the 12th. Chappell shot 40 on the back nine and had to settle for a 72, leaving him five shots back.
“I’ve got as much firepower as I need,” Chappell said. “I’ve got to figure out the bad stuff and limit. I’m physically going to make bad golf swings and hit it in bad places. That’s just kind of where my game is at the moment. But I compounded some mistakes out there and let it get out of hand. Those are the things I’ve got to stop.”
He was in the group at 8-under 136 along with Sergio Garcia (68), Anirban Lahiri (70) and Brandt Snedeker (66).
Garcia, making his Sanderson Farms Championship, was putting with his eyes closed. He says he has been doing that a majority of the time all the way back to 2017 when he won the Masters, and sounded surprised to get so many questions.
It was good news for Jay McLuen, another Monday qualifier who suffered a heart attack three years ago and was treated with shock paddles in the ambulance. Then, his wife nearly died in April when a tractor fell on them.
He shot 71 and wound up making the cut on the number. He also made the cut in the Puerto Rico Open, where he was given a sponsor exemption.
Leading Asian Scores
Anirban Lahiri 66-70 – 136 (-8)
C.T. Pan 70-69 – 139 (-5)
Si Woo Kim 72-69 – 141 (-3)
Sungjae Im 71-70 – 141 (-3)
K.H. Lee 68-73 – 141 (-3)
36-hole cut: 66 professionals at 3-under 141 advanced to the weekend
PGA Tour Release, Oct 03, 2020
