GOLF
Lahiri handles rain and cold to rise to 10th at Wells Fargo
India's Anirban Lahiri handled tough windy, cold and wet conditions well for 16 holes before dropping a double bogey to card 2-under 68 in the second round of the Wells Fargo Championship.
At 4-under, the Indian is T-10, up from overnight T-38, as he chases another good week on the PGA Tour.
Lahiri, just four behind leader Jason Day at one stage, is now six behind at the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm.
The former No. 1 player Day shot 3-under 67 in steady rain and stretched his lead over the field to three shots as he attempts his first victory in four years.
Day is 10-under 130 through two rounds and Max Homa is second at 7-under. Denny McCarthy (69), Luke List (66), Kurt Kitayama (67), and James Hahn (68) are tied for 3rd at 6-under.
The weather took a toll as even the shots from the first cut of the rough saw water splashing off and the divots were big. Lahiri did well to hang in with six birdies, two bogeys and a double.
“Tough day, it was a grind. Weather was obviously difficult, you have to battle the elements. The golf course is hard and long enough to begin with," said Lahiri.
"I played really, really well, but missed a couple of putts. I think I could have avoided some of the bogeys that I made. Then right in the end on the 17th, I just lost control of the ball due to the heavy rain and the gust that we got at that point of time." Lahiri hit 12 of the 18 greens in regulation. After a string of four pars, he got an opportunity when he hit from 92 yards to inside 10 feet for his first birdie on Par-4 fifth and he converted that from seven feet.
On the very next hole, he hit his approach to just over 11 feet and birdied it to go 2-under. A six-foot miss for par cost him a shot on eighth and he turned in 1-under.
After the turn he hit two great approach shots to birdie both 10 and 11 and get to 3-under as the conditions stayed challenging. He missed the fairway and reached the green in three on 13th and gave away a shot, but got it back on 14.
Another fine second shot set up a birdie on 16 and at 4-under he was inside top-5. Then came the crushing double bogey.
On the 190-yard par-3 17th, Lahiri hit into the water off the tee. Following a penalty drop for his third shot he was 45 feet from the flag. He two-putted for a double bogey. He parred the 18th to finish 2-under for the round.
"I think it's going to get more of the same in the next couple of days, probably going to get a lot colder. Pars are going to be very valuable and birdies even more," Lahiri said.
Rory McIlroy shot 73 to finish at even par. Matthew Wolff, who shot 65 on Thursday, fell back with a 73.
Korean pair Si Woo Kim and K.H. Lee, and C.T. Pan of Chinese Taipei returned scores of 72, 71 and 73 respectively to move into the weekend rounds. They are tied 29th on 1-under.
-PTI
Tvesa lands two birdies on back nine to make the cut in Spain
Indian golfer Tvesa Malik pulled herself out of a tough situation with two birdies and seven pars on the back nine to squeeze inside the cut line at the Comunidad de Madrid Ladies Open.
Tvesa, who has been trying to find her rhythm in 2022, shot 1-under 71 and at even par 144 for two days she is T-56 and right on the cutline.
The other two Indian players in the fray, Vani Kapoor and Amandeep Drall, who flew in from Australia for the week, missed the cut.
Vani, who shot 72-73 missed the cut by one shot, while Amandeep had a rough week with 77-76. The cut fell at even par and 64 players made it to the next round.
Finland’s Tiia Koivisto holds a one-stroke lead on 10-under-par at the halfway stage. The 28-year-old fired a six-under-par 66 to take control.
Tvesa, who has been having middling finishes this year, had a double bogey on the first day and she had another one the second day. While she had just one birdie on the first, she had three on the second day.
ALSO READ | May 6: Indian sports news wrap of the day
Vani had a birdie on first and then two bogeys on second and 18th in her round of 73. The bogey on 18th proved costly for the Indian.
Linn Grant of Sweden, who is second on the Race to Costa del Sol and the leading LET Rookie after winning the Joburg Open, shot a course-record seven-under-par 65 to share second spot with Spanish amateur Cateyana Fernandez, who carded a 67.
Another promising Spaniard, Ana Pelaez, lies in fourth position on eight-under-par, while her compatriot Carmen Alonso shares fifth with Agathe Sauzon of France and Pia Babnik of Slovenia.
Grant, who has Swedish DJ "Kaaze" acting as her caddie, carded eight birdies and a solitary bogey. This is her third LET tournament of the year and her first since South Africa.
-PTI
Sharma, Chawrasia miss cut at British Masters
India's Shubhankar Sharma and SSP Chawrasia made early exits from the Betfred British Masters golf tournament, hosted by Danny Willett after missing the cut by a fair margin.
Sharma, who was second at the Rolex Series Abu Dhabi Championship at the start of 2022, carded 73-74 and Chawrasia, a four-time winner on European Tour, shot 74-74.
Tournament host Willett raised 8,000 pound for Prostate Cancer UK by carding eight birdies on day two. While doing that he moved to within three shots of leader Hurly Long at the halfway stage.
Germany's Long carded a four-under par round of 68 at The Belfry to lead by one. Yet, it was Willett who roared into contention on the iconic Brabazon Course as he responded to an opening one over par 73 with a sublime 65 on day two to take his running fundraising total to 12,000 pound after 36 holes.
Tournament sponsors Betfred have pledged to donate 1,000 pound for every birdie and 2,000 pound for every eagle the 2016 Masters Tournament winner makes this week.
Long, who graduated from the European Challenge Tour in 2021, is one stroke clear of 2019 Betfred British Masters champion Marcus Kinhult, round one co-leader Thorbjørn Olesen and Scotland's Richie Ramsay, who all share second place on eight under par, with Denmark's Rasmus Højgaard a shot further back on seven under.
Willett is one of four players in a tie for sixth on six under, alongside countryman Marcus Armitage, South African Justin Walters, who lost in a play-off to Højgaard in the 2020 ISPS Handa UK Championship at The Belfry, and Sweden's Sebastian Soderberg.
- PTI
Khalin Joshi, Viraj Madappa lying Tied-5th in Korea
Khalin Joshi and Viraj Madappa, the last two Indians to have won on the Asian Tour, were five shots behind sole leader, Bio Kim (68) after the penultimate round of the GS Caltex Maekyung Open in Seongnam, Korea on Saturday.
Joshi (69), the last Indian to win an Asian Tour event in 2018 and Madappa (72), who won a few months before him, are both Tied-fifth at 5-under 208 and will make a bid to end India's title drought since late 2018 on Sunday.
Kim was 10-under for three days at Namseoul Country Club.
Madappa seemed to be going great on the front nine and even took sole lead at 8-under as he had three birdies against one bogey. He collapsed on the back nine with four bogeys against one birdie to drop to 5-under.
Joshi, who finished before Madappa, had four birdies in two sets of back-to-back birdies against two bogeys for 69 as he also moved to 5-under.
Another young star Indian Honey Baisoya shot a 66, the joint-lowest round of the day, to sit in outright seventh at 4-under for three rounds.
It was the second time in two days that an Indian player had shot the best or equal best round of the day – Madappa had second day’s best of 65.
Of the other Indians, Veer Ahlawat (74) and S Chikkrangappa (72) were T-42, Karandeep Kochhar (73) was T-52 and Gaganjeet Bhullar (75) was T-59.
Leader Bio Kim had an unexpected scare on the first hole, when a scoring official collapsed on the tee near to him.
Kim later found out that the official who collapsed was a 20-year-old university student Woojun Lee, handling one of the scoreboards.
A doctor in the large crowd rushed to help and an ambulance took him to a hospital where he made a full recovery. He was suffering from anaemia.
Kim was four shots ahead of his countrymen Minjun Kim (68), Mingyu Cho (68) and Jiho Yang (71).
Reigning Asian Tour number one Joohyung Kim from Korea fired a 72 and is in a group of five players seven off the pace, along with Thailand’s Rattanon Wannasrichan who carded a 66.
- PTI
SQUASH
Ghosal loses in J. P. Morgan Tournament of Champions semifinals
Saurav Ghosal, seeded seven, went down fighting to Diego Elias of Peru, seeded two, 3-11, 11-9, 11-6, 5-11, 3-11 in the semifinals of the J. P. Morgan Tournament of Champions squash championships on Friday.
- K. Keerthivasan
TENNIS
Yuki, Ramkumar lose in semifinals
Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan were beaten 7-5, 1-6, [10-7] by the French team of Titouan Droguet and Kyrian Jacquet in the doubles semifinals of the €90,280 Challenger tennis tournament in France.
The Indian pair collected 36 ATP points and €1,840. Ramkumar had earlier lost in the singles quarterfinals.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
ATHLETICS
Indian Grand Prix 3 & 4 moved to Bhubaneswar
The Indian Grand Prix 3 and 4 scheduled for this month has been moved from Thiruvananthapuram to Bhubaneswar on May 21 and 24, respectively, Odisha's Department of Sports and Youth Services announced on Saturday.
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