India’s Anirban Lahiri fought swirly conditions and a misbehaving driver to post a 2-under 70 and retained his overnight tied the seventh position after the end of the second round of the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Hitting only three fairways at Country Club of Jackson, the 33-year-old on Friday carded four birdies against a double bogey for a two-day total of 8-under 136 to trail leader Keegan Bradley by five shots heading into the weekend. Bradley, a four-time PGA Tour winner, fired a 65 to lead by two from J.T. Poston.
Starting from the 10th hole, Lahiri started his round nicely with birdies on Hole numbers 12, 13, and 15. He made his first gain with a 25-foot conversion and then hit exquisite approach shots to five inches and two feet for his next two birdies.
However, an error on the sixth proved costly. After missing the fairway, Lahiri landed in the greenside bunker and he needed four more shots to get into the hole for a double-bogey six before signing off with a 10-foot birdie on his last hole.
“I just didn’t hit enough fairways. The wind kept swirling and it was a guessing game between the lies and the wind all day. Lost my concentration around the turn and just had to grind it out,” said Lahiri, who is featuring in his sixth straight season on the PGA Tour.
Meanwhile, Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan returned a 69 which featured five birdies against two bogeys for a share of 24th position on 139 while Korea’s Si Woo Kim (69), Sungjae I’m (70), and K.H. Lee (73) all made the halfway cut set at 141.
