11:30 pm – Shiv Kapur displays good consistent golf and finishes the round in style. His game would have met his expectations but for the bogey on the final hole. Kapur finished three over par 73. Maiden Major opportunity for Kapur is bound to bring gravitas to his game, experience and confidence.
10: 30 pm – Shiv Kapur stays the course with pars and plays to his best potential after reminding himself how tough the course is and how complex the Pinehurst layout can get. He is probably encouraged by the fact that Phil Mickelson too has had three bogeys and scores on the leader board are testing everyone on the skills.
9:40 pm – Bogey on the 4th hole acts as a set back for Shiv Kapur, he slips to T27. For Kapur this is his first US Open. He came through the international qualifying in severe weather conditions at Surrey last month and then skipped a few tournaments to make it into the US a bit early for practise.
9:20 pm – He picks up two pars and holds his game there as he progresses through the front nine of the course. Half through R1 Kapur was steady until the bogey on 18th, followed up with another on the 1st.
8:45 pm – Kapur’s bogeys on the 18th and the 1st hole bring him up to one over par through eleven holes. Mickelson playing to one under and T6 in a leader board led by Matt Kuchar with a three under through fifteen holes
8:15 pm – Kapur makes pars the seventeenth par-3. Flanked by a line of trees on the right hand side, the approach has a fair bit of sandy dry grass rough on the right of the green which is also surrounded on nearly all sides by bunkers. Kapur has kept himself in the leader mix this morning at Pinehurst. Last year he made headlines for leading at the British Open for about seven holes. The 31 year old Indian golfer believes ‘Majors’ are the tournaments worth playing for and now hopes to get more opportunities to play in America and PGA Tour.
7:45 pm – Through six holes, Kapur’s performance has been good. T5 with Phil Mickelson, Graeme McDowell he has had a good start on his maiden US Open tournament. Kapur knows American courses in general and the US Open course in particular are different from the European ones in terms of approach and difficulty. In his interview just a few hours ago he admitted the trick on this course was ‘pars and patience.’
7:30 pm – With a one under after five holes Shiv Kapur is tied fourth at the US Open in Pinehurst. He was getting spruced up in his swing with Jamie Gough while Bob Rotella advised him on keeping his patience and focussing on pars. Looks like Kapur got that bang on.
7:15 pm – Kapur picks up his first birdie of the day on the par 4, 384 thirteenth hole at Pinehurst No.2. This is Kapur’s maiden US Open even as he came pretty close to qualifying in 2004. Ten years down, the dream has come true.
7:00 pm – Kapur on the 11th held up nicely. He is paired with Maximillan Kieffer and Wen Chong both of who have won on Indian soil too.
6:45 pm – Shiv Kapur, the only Indian in the field at the US Open at Pinehurst. Wearing a sky blue tee and white trousers, he teed off the tenth and picked up a par on the 617 yard par 5.
