By Rahul Banerji
Anirban Lahiri and Aditi Ashok took contrasting routes into the weekend rounds at the Valero Texas Open and ANA Inspiration on Friday.
While Lahiri moved into a share of eighth place at San Antonio, Aditi had to call on all her considerable experience to make the cut line at Rancho Mirage in California.
Lahiri brought in a 3-under 69 in tough and windy conditions to follow his opening 71 and sit five shots behind leader Cameron Tringale.
Having knocked in an early birdie the former Asia no. 1 had three birdies, three bogeys and an eagle at TPC San Antonio for a two-day total of 4-under 140.
Lahiri had in fact gone 5-under and into the top five before dropping back, but still made a gain of 14 places on Friday.
Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama had a 74 to slip to T14 while Sung Kang will enter the money rounds on 2-under 142 after returning a 4-over 76.
Friday’s round was 10 shots worse than the Korean’s opening day’s effort.
Birdie blitz
Tringale sank five consecutive birdies on his way back to the clubhouse in chase of a first career victory from 297 starts.
He led by two shots from crowd favourite from Jordan Spieth, a 14-time winner but not since 2017 and England’s Matt Wallace on 7-under 137s.
Wallace and Rickie Fowler had teh day’s only two clean cards.
Lahiri’s gains included a holed 20-foot eagle on 14 on his back nine but the Indian left the course rueing his closing hole.
Lahiri found the water with his second shot on the par-5 18th and came away with a bogey that dropped him out a share of fourth place.
Still, his performance going into Moving Day was in the right direction ahd he would have taken away some much-needed confidence following a lean spell where he has missed five cuts in seven starts in 2021.
“I’ve been working on my ball striking and it was nice to see it come together. I was happy that I made a lot of birdies, dropped a few but trying to keep a clean card over the weekend,” said Lahiri on pgatour.com.
Lahiri skipped last week’s event in Dominica to work on his game despite finishing T6 in the event last September which was his last top-10 on Tour.
Worthwhile call
The call seemed to be paying off as he has improved his Strokes Gained: Tee to Green statistic from 150th this season to 37th this week for the Valero Texas Open.
“I feel like I’m moving in the right direction and it’s progressing in a good way. I still need to stay on top of it and keep building on it,” he said.
Spieth, at a sixth start in his home state event, continued to show a resurgence in form as a second round 70, thanks to birdies on 14 and 15, kept him in the title hunt.
He has finished top-10 in four of his last six tournaments.
“I’m really pleased with where things are at, but they’re not where I want them to be at,” he said.
“I’m trying to kind of take it slowly and patiently and reward myself, be excited about the good ones and not get too down about the bad ones.”
In all,78 professionals made the cut at 2-over 146 from a field of 141 professionals and three amateurs.
Late charge
At the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Aditi (73-72) looked set to miss the cut before unleashing a birdie burst that carried her to the cut line.
Sitting on 4-over after her opening nine that included three dropped shots on Friday, the Bangalore girl found inspiration when she needed it the most.
What followed were three birdies over the final six holes to give Aditi the chance to make further gains on Moving Day.
She picked up a shot on the par-4 13th, then on the par-4 16th and finally on the par-3 17th before safely closing out the round to sit 10 shots behind Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit.
The 2020-21 season rookie held her nerve with a second round 69 to follow her opening 66 for a one-shot lead over China’s Shanshan Feng (67-69, 136) and two clear of fellow-Thai Moriya Jutanugarn (68-69, 137).
Strong rebound
Patty, who holds a 36-hole lead for the first time in her career, rebounded from a bogey on her first hole with an eagle-birdie sequence to pick up momentum before the turn.
Feng had a roller-coaster front nine with four birdies and three bogeys before making the turn.
Staying patient turned out to be the key for the two-time Major champion, who closed with birdies on her last two holes.
Charley Hull and Anna Nordqvist were tied for fourth on 6-under, with six major champions in a tie for sixth on 5-under including Lydia Ko, Inbee Park, Sophia Popov, Georgia Hall, Jin Young Ko and defending champion Mirim Lee.
A total of 71 players made the cut at +1, tying the record for the lowest cut in ANA Inspiration history, last recorded in 2018, lpagatour.com noted.
Also read: Lahiri sits mid-pack after opening round of Palmer Invitational
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