Porthcawl (Wales), Jul 29 (PTI) India’s Jeev Milkha Singh survived some strong winds that kept switching directions to recover on the back nine of the challenging Royal Porthcawl Golf Club to make his first cut at the Senior Open Championships here.
Jeev, who missed the cut last year at Gleneagles, was fourth after the first round, but slipped to T-48 after a round of 6-over 77.
Jeev gave away four bogeys and a double on the front nine and was in danger of missing cut.
He recovered well with two birdies on Par-3 15th and the Par-5 18th, which he had birdied on the first day also.
At 4-over he was down to T-48, but with the leader Steven Alker (71-68) at 4-under, the leaderboard was tight and Jeev could make a move on the weekend.
“It was brutal out there,. Though there was no rain, the wind made it really tough,” said Jeev, who won the 2012 Scottish Open in tough conditions a decade ago.
Things did not pan out well for the other two Indians in fray, Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa, who were making their Open debuts.
Atwal (78-76) and Jyoti, who came through the qualifiers, shot rounds of 76-78. Both missed the cut.
Alker cut through the wind to lead the Senior Open.
The absence of rain did not make the task facing the 144-strong field any easier than the tough opening round. However New Zealan’’s Alker carded an impressive three under par round of 68 – which included just one dropped shot – to reach four under par and lead by one from Germany’s Alex Cejka.
Alker, the 2022 Charles Schwab Cup Standings winner, has only finished outside the top 10 twice in his eight Senior Major appearances to date, as well as winning last year’s Senior PGA Championship and finished in a tie for third in The Senior Open at Gleneagles, his first appearance in the event.
Scotland’s Greig Hutcheon, making his debut Senior Major appearance, sits in third place on two under par after matching the Kiwi’s round of 68, while countryman Paul Lawrie, Fijian Vijay Singh, Denmark’s Anders Hansen and 2016 Senior Open Champion Paul Broadhurst share fourth on one under and complete the group of seven players in the red figures.
Bernhard Langer, the 46-time PGA TOUR Champions winner who won both previous editions of The Senior Open in South Wales, cancelled out his opening two over par 73 with a two under 69 to sit in a tie for eighth alongside seven others including fellow past champion Miguel Ángel Jiménez, 2010 Ryder Cup Captain Colin Montgomerie and Spain’s Santiago Luna, who posted the lowest round of the day, an impressive four under 67.
Another Ryder Cup captain, Padraig Harrington, carded two double bogeys but still managed a round of 68 to move to one over par, five strokes off Alker’s lead.
Source: PTI News
