Suri holds 2-shot lead as former Indian Open champs stumble

By Rahul Banerji

New Yorker Julian Suri kept his nose ahead of the field in the $1.75 million Hero Indian Open 2019 with a second successive 5-under par 67 at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon on Friday, two shots ahead of his closest pursuers.

The ash-blonde Mohawk-adorned Suri matched his first-day card with some steady play on his front nine, in the course of which he dropped a shot. Suri’s second nine was altogether different as he went on a tear, piling up five birdies and an eagle against a second bogey.

In all, Suri was 6-under for his homeward nine holes and though the field laboured through the day to close the gap, the changing conditions in the afternoon meant that late finishers George Coetzee (70, 66) of South Africa and Swede Robert Karlsson (68, 68) were able to get close, but not as close as they would have liked.

Chances galore

Maybank winner Scott Hend (69, 68) too had his chances but putting got harder as the day wore on and he missed a couple of close birdie putts to be 7-under par 137 alongside Englishman Cakum Shinkwin, who had the day’s round of 7-under 65 to go with his level par card of the first day.

Shubhankar Sharma continued to be the best-placed Indian for the second day running, though he finished on 1-over 73 on day two He was joined at 2-under 142 by Rashid Khan (72, 70), who made the most of his morning start.

With the cut falling at 2-over 146, 70 players made it to the weekend, eight of them Indians.

Late charge

Meanwhile, two-time winner S.S.P Chawrasia almost joined a parade of former champions making an early exit from the tournament on Friday with four others failing to make it.

Chawrasia (2016, 2017) and China’s Liang Wenchong (2008) were among six past winners in the field this week, and the Kolkatan needed a dramatic late charge to survive the cut on the line.

Not so fortunate were 2015 champion Anirban Lahiri, Bangladesh’s Siddikur Rehman (2013), Aussie David Gleeson (2011) and local boy Jyoti Randhawa (2000, 2007, 2008).

Having gone 2-over 74 on the first day, Chawrasia looked dead and buried at 5-over par overall. With two holes to go, he had all but decided to book his tickets home on Saturday morning when his caddy advised him to first finish the round, and then take a call.

All or nothing

With nothing to lose, Chawrasia (74, 72) went for broke, ripping a driver and then a hybrid wood on the par-5 8^th hole. The second shot almost went in for what would have been the tournament’s first albatross, or double-eagle as it is more popularly called now.

In the event it was a tap-in eagle and when he birdied his last hole for the day, the 9^th, he was suddenly back in the mix.

Liang (72, 73) had an equally dramatic ride, mixing an eagle and four birdies with two bogeys, a double and a triple. But one gained shot on the par-5 18^th hole gave him something of a cushion and he was well inside the line when the cut came.

Lahiri (77, 71) seemed to be gathering some momentum to compensate for a disappointing 5-over par 77 of the first day when he cut the deficit by one on his first nine holes with three birdies against two bogeys. He could make no further headway thereafter to bring home a 1-under par card that was not enough to push him through to the weekend.

Also read: Chip-Putt Chawrasia banks on history to revive fortunes