There was no joy for John Murphy or Gary Hurley as the Irish pair missed the cut at their latest DP World Tour outing at the Hero Indian Open.
Kinsale man Murphy posted two rounds of 76 for an eight-over tally to miss the cut by four while West Waterford’s Hurley added a one-over 73 to his opening 80 to finish one shot worse off than his compatriot.
At the top, Yannik Paul is in command after extending his lead to five strokes after posting a three under par round of 69 on day two at DLF Golf and Country Club.
The German led by one after 18 holes but pulled away from the pack on day two as he reached ten under par to continue his quest for a second DP World Tour title.
The 28-year-old finished second at last week’s Thailand Classic and has shown no signs of slowing down, with just a single bogey the only blemish on an otherwise clean second round scorecard as he set the target early in the day, which proved unassailable after 36 holes.
“I played well,” said Paul. “I probably played almost better today than yesterday. I felt the pins were in tougher spots today so you had a lot of downhill putts where you think you have a good look but it’s actually two or three cups’ break. I think the key part is just staying patient. You have quite a few wedges but the pins are so tucked and the course is general is so firm, so you feel like you’ve got to make some birdies but par is fine too. You just have to stay patient and just focus on myself and see where I end up.
“It feels good when you feel like you can first of all get over the line and second of all, make a putt when it matters. I only noticed that last week, I was a bit calmer and more collected because you feel like you’ve gained experience last year and that helped me last week. I’ll try not to focus too much on the leaderboard, on a course like this anything can happen so I’ll just focus on my game plan and see where I end up.”
Scoring proved to be more difficult on day two in New Delhi as Finland’s Mikko Korhonen moved into a share of second place after posting a level par 72. He is joined on five under par by Iceland’s Gudmundur Kristjansson, four-time DP World Tour winner Marcel Siem and local favourite Angad Cheema, who is the leading Indian player.
The low round of the day went to Japan’s Kazuki Higa as he carded the first and only bogey-free round of the week so far, with six birdies contributing to a fine 66 on the picturesque but tricky Gary Player designed layout.
There were 66 players who made the cut on four over par, with the third round set to begin at 7:23am local time on Saturday.
- Full scoring HERE
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