Honolulu, Jan 16 (PTI) Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri produced his best card at the Waialae Country Club, firing a superb five-under 65 in the second round to easily make the cut at Sony Open here.
With eight birdies against three bogeys, Lahiri, who shot 69 in the opening round, is now six-under for 36 holes and made a smart move to T-35 up from T-72.
"I was aware that I needed to make a lot of birdies and my intent is there. I'm happy that I caught a couple of shots on the lead," said
Lahiri, whose previous best at this course was 66 in the final round of the 2019 edition.
It was the only time he managed to make the cut in three previous starts at the Sony Open.
Nick Taylor (62) was in sole lead at 12-under with a two-shot lead over five players at 10-under.
The five included 2009 British Open winner Stewart Cink (63), who along with his cancer-survivor wife had recently recovered from COVID-19.
Cink, 47, had for company Webb Simpson (65), Russell Henley (64), Vaughn Taylor (66) and Chris Kirk (65).
Lahiri, whose last worldwide win came at the Hero Indian Open in India in 2015, said he was happy with his overall performance.
"I'm quite happy with the way I played, much better than yesterday (Round 1). I applied myself well though it was disappointing to drop three shots. I got over aggressive on one of them and completely mis-clubbed one; just some unforced errors there but overall it was good." Lahiri made two big putts, one from 19-feet on the third and then from 36 feet on the 16th. He has also ensured birdies in both Par-5s on both days.
His three bogeys included one on fourth when he went into the greenside bunker and came out alright to 15 feet, but missed par putt. Then on sixth, he mis-clubbed his second shot and was left with a 34-footer for par, which he two-putted for bogey. The third bogey was on par-3 11th.
"I was aware that I needed to make a lot of birdies. The goal is to do more of the same going into the weekend and try and minimize the errors and try to keep a clean sheet. Obviously, as everyone can see there's lots of birdies to be made," he said.
About the weekend, Lahiri said, "I don't know what the conditions are going to be, but so far they've been good for scoring. It is going to be important to keep making birdies because the field is going to make a lot of birdies.
"I'm just focusing on doing the right things and hitting more fairways, setting up, having better looks at birdie and hopefully I can continue to do that on the weekend." The top Asian star was Hideki Matsuyama, who shot his career-low nine-hole score (28) during his round of 65 and at 9-under 131. He is Tied-7th. Matsuyama is three behind the leader, Taylor.
Among other Asian stars, KJ Choi of Korea, 50, carded a bogey-free 65 to lie four back in tied 15th place.
Korea's Si Woo Kim (70) will enter the third round on 134 in T-35, while KH Lee and Sungjae Im of Korea, Japan's Satoshi Kodaira and Ryosuke Kinoshita also made the halfway cut set at 137.
