Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championships | Anirban Lahiri slips after being on top, Shubhankar Sharma eliminated
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Anirban Lahiri continued his momentum from the first day to go on top for a while before a lapse in concentration saw him finish at the eighth spot at the end of the day. Meanwhile, compatriot Shubhankar Sharma failed to progress to the next round after a dismal performance saw him miss the cut.
Anirban Lahiri is still on-course to end the event in Ohio on a high even though a couple of mistakes on the second day cost him what could have seen him have an even better finish. Starting the day on four-under 67, Lahiri hit a couple of early birdies but missed a shot in between at the sixth. However, he went on to birdy 12th which saw him take the lead at six-under. He ended with a couple of bogeys on 13th and 17th to end at par at 71.
“I drove awful on front nine, the driver misbehaved a little bit. I was out of position on Par-5s. Those are the holes you need to make birdies on. If you get a good drive away and get the long irons right, the Par-5s are reachable,” he was quoted saying at the end of day’s play by Scroll.in.
He is currently four shots behind the 36-holes scoreboard leader Kevin Dougherty with a total score of four-under 138, who shot an impressive 66 on the day courtesy four birdies. However, he stays in contention for a top-ten finish and even better, having bypassed the cut set at one-over 143.
“I was way out of position on sixth (Par-5) and bogeyed it. That hurt the momentum. I played really good on the back nine. I was disappointed coming back. I missed a six-footer on 17, a five-footer on 16, a 10-footer on 15 and a 12-footer on 14. That’s four inside 15 feet and two inside eight feet,” the 32-year-old expressed disappointment.
On the other hand, Shubhankar Sharma failed to clear the cut, as he hit 79 in the second round which saw his total score become 154, well over the cut.Â
75 golfers progressed to the next round of the event which is a part of the Web.com Tour finals. Joint leaders on the first day, a poor showing saw Viktor Holand end the round tied fourth at 137(-4) while Cameron Percy was tied with Lahiri at eighth.
