Jeev survives poor start to hold on to lead at Irish Open

Killarney (Ireland): India’s ace golfer Jeev Milkha Singh recovered from a poor start to hold on to his lead at the end of the second round of the Irish Open on Friday.

After his career record-equaling opening round of 63 on Thursday, the 39-year-old Indian carded a one-under-par round of 70 on Friday, which put him two strokes ahead of England’s Simon Wakefield and Raphael Jacquelin of France, who are tied second on seven-under par.

Jeev had four birdies and three bogeys. His birdies came on second, fifth, 10th and 16th and dropped shots on first, fourth and 17th.

Jeev, whose day started by hitting into the hazard, said, “It was a bit more of a struggle, so I’m happy with one-under. I didn’t drive it that well and my putting was not as good, but it was still good enough.”

Shiv Kapur, with two birdies, carded a 69 and was sure to make the cut at two-under for 36 holes. But SSP Chowrasia’s campaign ended with a disappointing 75.

Starting at one-under Rory McIlroy (68) and Graeme McDowell (66), who was one-over after the first round, moved up to four-under for 36 holes.

Clarke shot 74 for one-over par and Harrington a 72 for three-over as both missed the cut. In his first appearance since triumphing at Sandwich two weeks ago, Open Champion Darren Clarke shot a closing bogey five.

“I saw the cut was going to be one-under and tried to make my chip, but was too aggressive with it. A weekend off is not what I wanted coming here. It will not do me any harm (he went down with the flu after his post-Open celebrations), but I’d much prefer to be playing,” the Northern Irishman said.

PTI