Perth, Australia, 26-02-2016

Shiv Kapur drops to joint eighth in Perth

Lahiri lies tied 23rd in Florida

India’s Shiv Kapur struggled to a one-over-73 in the second round of the ISPS Handa Perth International on Friday to drop from overnight tied second to tied eighth at five-under-139. He trailed the co-leaders American Peter Uihlein and Australian Brett Rumford by six strokes.  

Kapur scrambled on his front-nine where he was staring at an outward 40 at the turn.

He started well with a birdie on the second hole but dropped five shots starting from the sixth hole to the ninth with three bogeys and one double-bogey.

“It was not great. I started off pretty steady and gave myself a lot of chances. But I let it slip towards the end of the front nine, which is quite disappointing.

“I hit two bad shots, made a double and two bogeys in a hurry,” said Kapur.

The former Asian Tour winner managed to regain focus and got his game back on track with three birdies in his inward-nine.

“When I made the turn, I said, you still can fight back.  I felt I was playing good and I knew I could bounce back.

“It’s nice to fight back and have a little bit of a better taste in my mouth and not a bitter one as I was walking off the ninth green,” said the Indian.

Although Kapur was feeling the effects of a shoulder injury, he was quick to rule that out for his erratic form at the Lake Karrinyup Country Club.

“No, it’s not the shoulder.  That would be making an excuse.  My shoulder was a lot worse yesterday, but much better today.

“I just had a couple of bad swings and I got a little impatient to be honest on the eighth and ninth holes. There’s obviously two rounds still to go, so a good round tomorrow could put me back in it,” said Kapur.

Kapur, along with compatriots Himmat Rai (tied 25th at three-under-141), Chiragh Kumar (tied 50th at one-under-143) and Gaganjeet Bhullar (tied 57th at even-par-144) will progress into the weekend rounds at the event tri-sanctioned by the Asian Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia and European Tour.

The three Indians who missed the cut of 144, were, SSP Chawrasia (146), Arjun Atwal (146) and Jeev Milkha Singh (161).

Elsewhere, at the PGA Tour’s The Honda Classic in Florida, Anirban Lahiri shot an opening round of even-par-70 to be tied 23rd, five strokes off the pace.



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