Needing a solid round of golf, Anirban Lahiri failed to take advantage of seemingly friendly conditions at the Valhalla Golf Club, scoring a lacklustre 73 to suffer a missed cut. The 96th PGA Championship was the Indian’s first ever showing at the final major of the season. 71-73 in the first two rounds saw Lahiri slide just beneath the cut line, to add to his disappointment of suffering a similar fate at the Open Championships in July.
The Indian made a steady stream of bogeys on the front nine – four of them at the 1st, 4th, 6th and 8th to make the turn in 38. He was already three over for the round at the time and four over for the tournament. He sought to repair the damage with a birdie at the 10th, but another bogey at the 14th dipped him back to three over. Lahiri made a birdie at the 15th, but that was to be his last stand at a course that has played relatively mild for the past two days.
Koumei Oda was the best Asian – having leapt up 56 spots, riding a 68 that saw him recover to even par for the tournament. Hideki Matsuyama survived the cut, just on the line at one over after posting 71-72 in the first two rounds. Seung-Yul Noh (+3), Ryo Ishikawa (+4), Y E Yang (+4), Hideto Tanihara (+4), Hyung-Sung Kim (+6) and KJ Choi (+9) have all missed the cut as well.
Thai hope Thongchai Jaidee also tumbled out of the PGA Championship, with a terrible 79 that included a quadruple bogey, a double and four other bogeys. Asian Tour Order of Merit winner from last year, Kiradech Aphibarnrat was forced to hobble out of the tournament with an ankle injury.
Report by Anand Datla
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Pic: Asian Tour
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