Shubhankar misses cut for second straight week, leader Sullivan sparks on back nine

Sharma has made just one cut on the European Tour in 2020 and that came in the first start at the Abu Dhabi Championship where he finished T-59.

Even before the coronavirus outbreak, the year 2020 had not been great for Sharma. (FILE IMAGE)

Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma carded a one-under par 70 in the second round of the English Championship but that was not enough to keep him alive in the low-scoring event. Sharma aggregated one-under 141 over two rounds, missing the cut for the second time in as many weeks in the UK Swing, which is taking place amid the COVID-19 the pandemic.

The year, even before the coronavirus outbreak, had not been great for the 24-year-old.

He has made just one cut on the European Tour in 2020 and that came in the first start at the Abu Dhabi Championship where he finished T-59.

Since then, this is his sixth missed cut in a row and he made the cut only once on a domestic Indian Tour event, the Tata Steel PGTI Players Championship in February when he finished T-29.

Sharma started with a birdie for the second day in a row but suffered a double bogey on Par-5 sixth, which he bogeyed on the first day.

A birdie on ninth was followed by an eagle on Par-5 12th before he bogeyed on Par-3 16th. The closing birdie on 18th was a small consolation as he is going to miss the weekend rounds.

Andy Sullivan, who was T-4 at the British Masters, recorded the lowest nine of his European Tour career as he opened up a one shot lead heading into the weekend at the Hanbury Manor Marriott Hotel and Country Club.

Sullivan (62) turned in 34 with birdies on the first, sixth and ninth and a single dropped shot on the eighth but really came to life on the back nine with a 28 with seven birdies in nine holes.

The only ones he missed out were on 11th and 17th and is now 14-under and one shot clear of countryman Laurie Canter (65) and South Africa’s Dean Burmester (63), who also had a 28 on the back nine.

The cut fell at three-under and among those missing it were last week’s winner Sam Horsfield and Gavin Green.

Sullivan, a three-time winner on the European Tour in 2015, has been in some good form and now has nine rounds in the 60s out of ten since the Tour re-start.

As many as nine players were three shots off the lead and it included Andrew Johnston (65), Nicolas Colsaerts (66), Jamie Donaldson (64), Min Woo Lee (67) and. Brandon Stone (66).