November 22, 2013. After a disastrous debut at US$8 million ISPS HANDA World Cup of Golf, India’s Anirban Lahiri and Gaganjeet Bhullar were in recovery mode on Friday. Lahiri settled for a one-under-par 70 in the second round at the Royal Melbourne. Bhullar scored 77 on day two, after his terrible round of 82 on the opening day, but still remains at the bottom of the leaderboard.
Meanwhile Thomas Bjorn of Denmark extended his command over tricky Royal Melbourne after shooting a 3-under 68 and taken a one-stroke lead after two rounds of the World Cup of Golf. Bjorn, who had a 36-hole total of 8-under 134, made a testing six-foot putt to save par on the 16th and a birdie on the 17th before bogeying the final hole after a misjudged approach shot.
American Kevin Streelman was in second place after shooting a 69. He and Matt Kuchar led the overall team standings for the United States after 36 holes, with a three-stroke margin over Denmark and seven over Japan and Australia.
Tied for third in the individual stroke-play competition were Jason Day of Australia (70) and Ricardo Santos of Portugal (69). Kuchar was in a four-way tie for fifth after a 68, five strokes behind Bjorn.
Adam Scott, who has won the Australian PGA and Australian Masters over the past two weeks, shot 68 and was nine strokes behind Bjorn in a group with Graeme McDowell (71).
The three-time Asian Tour winner, Anirban was three under for his round before dropping bogeys on 16 and 17 as his two-day total of level par 142 saw him end the day in tied 15th place, eight shots behind leader Thomas Bjorn of Denmark.
“A little disappointed with how I finished with two bogeys in the end. I think I played better than my score,” said Lahiri.
“It was pretty good all round. I think I played much better than yesterday. I hit it quite good starting out, made some putts but didn’t finish well. Even par is not a bad place to be going into the weekend.”
Indians are placed 19th among 26 teams in fray at the World Cup of Golf.
