Bhullar is lone Indian to survive Abu Dhabi cut

By Rahul Banerji

Gaganjeet Bhullar shot a second successive two under par 70 for a 140 total to be the only Indian in contention at the $3 million Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on Friday, with Shubhankar Sharma (72-71) and S.S.P. Chawrasia (75-73) missing Thursday’s cut.

Bhullar was looking good for a better card as he was four-under through the first 15 holes. However two late bogeys pulled him down, even as Irishman Shane Lowry continued to lead the field at the halfway stage with a battling 70.

A day after equalling Henrik Stenson’s 13-year-old record, the three-time European Tour winner had to recover from two early bogeys with four birdies to get to 12 under par.

South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Richard Sterne were a shot behind Lowry with second-round 68s while early leader Lee Westwood was fourth on 10-under, with Scotland’s Scott Jamieson, Dane Søren Kjeldsen and Englishmen Ian Poulter and Tom Lewis a stroke further back.

Vital birdie

Two-time defending champion Tommy Fleetwood needed to dig deep for a vital birdie that helped him survive the cut and make it to the money rounds.

Lowry found his three-shot lead wiped out even before teeing off on Thursday with early starter Westwood joining him on ten under par courtesy of his second-round 68. He then proceeded to fall off the pace with early back-to-back bogeys.

Lowry bounced back with two birdies to rejoin Westwood at the top of the leaderboard, and continued to create birdie chances as he made his way down the stretch. He retook the lead at the 12^th with his fourth birdie of the day and then went one better soon after before wrapping up his round with a two-day 12-under total.

‘Weird day’

“I’m really happy with that,” said Lowry. “I knew today was going to be a bit of a weird day after shooting such a low score yesterday. I just tried to go out and play like I played. To be honest, right from the start, I really feel like I played pretty well today. I think I gave myself a lot of chances.

“Some of the shots early on were pretty horrendous. I battled back and hit some really nice shots out there and hit some in close and made some birdies. I was happy with myself.”

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