Chonburi: Four Indians have made the cut even as Sweden's Daniel Chopra added a second straight five-under 67 to get to 10-under and was sole second at the midway stage of the Thailand Golf Championships at the Amata Springs Golf Course here on Friday.
The man in front of Chopra was Charl Schwartzel, who was on fire with a second successive 65, despite confessing that he was tired at the start of the week. He was four clear of Chopra.
Only four of the 11 Indians who started will make the cut, though 25 players are yet to complete the second round. Almost 90 minutes of play was lost on account of rain and thunderstorm in the morning and that led to poor light coming in the way of second round being completed.
While Chopra was lying second, the four Indians making the weekend action were Anirban Lahiri (70-69) at tied ninth, Ajeetesh Sandhu (70-73) at tie 35th, Shiv Kapur (73-71) and Gaganjeet Bhullar (71-73) at tied 53rd.
With the cut likely at par or at best one-over, Indians missing the cut would be Jyoti Randhawa (69-77), Chiragh Kumar (73-73), Shankar Das (76-72), Himmat (74-73), Digvijay Singh (74-76), SSP Chowrasia (76-80) and Gaurav Ghei, who was 10-over with three more holes to play.
On a day when the players experienced searing heat, rain and even a bit of wind and very humid conditions, Schwartzel apart the star was Ryo Ishikawa, who shot 66. Playing alongside Masters champion, Bubba Watson (68-70), Ishikawa, followed by a huge number of Japanese fans, was sole fifth while Watson was tied sixth with Sergio Garcia (69-69) and Scott Hend (70-68).
Lahiri, who had a 70 on the first day, drained a nice 25-footer for par on the ninth, his final hole of the second round to close with a 69. He was five-under 139 in a bunch that included World No. 6 Lee Westwood (70-69), Thaworn Wiratchant (69-70) and Ryder Cup star Nicolas Colsaerts (72-67).
Lahiri, carrying happy memories of his visit earlier in the year when he won the IFQ Asia Qualifying, said, "It has been quite solid. I like this course. I came out here earlier in the year for the IFQ Asia Qualifying and won.
With the cut line expected to be either at par or one-over, Randhawa and Chiragh blew it right at the end of their second round.
Randhawa, the best Indian after first round at three-under 69, had a rocky day with three bogeys in first four holes. He recovered with birdies on seventh and 11th, but he bogeyed the 13th and 14th and the last straw was the double bogeye on the 17th, which has an Island green and he ended at two-over 146, as did Chiragh.
Chiragh was even par through 15 holes on second day, but bogeys on seventh and ninth, two of his last three holes, ended his campaign.
Shankar Das had a dream start with a eagle two and birdie on his first holes from the tenth, but three other bogeys and no more birdies meant he ended at 72 and his first round 76 spelt disaster for him.
Masanori Kobayishi (68-67) was lying third with local man, Thitiphun Chuayprakong, who was also at nine-under but will come back for three more holes. (PTI)