Kapur looks to shine again at golf tourney

Shiv Kapur of India lines up a putt on the 2nd green during the second round of the 142nd Open Championship at Muirfield on July 19, 2013 in Gullane, Scotland. (Getty Images)

Gullane (Scotland), July 20 (IANS): India’s Shiv Kapur will aim to recreate his opening day magic after shooting a six-over-par 77 at the halfway stage of The Open Championship.

Like most in the elite field, Kapur struggled on a tough scoring day but took consolation when he made his first ever cut at a major tournament. Ranked fourth at the start Friday, he slipped back when he shot four-over in the opening six holes. He traded another two birdies against four bogeys for a three-over-par 145 total.

The Indian rued bad breaks as his ball was plugged in the bunker on the fourth hole and he uncharacteristically shanked his shot on 17.

“It was a tough start. This is not a golf course where you can fight and get a lot of shots back, it is more a question of hanging on. When you get off to a bad start, you are trying to hang on because there are not too many birdie opportunities,” said Kapur.

“I managed to keep big numbers off my card. I made a bunch of bogeys but at least I kept it down. My ball was plugged on the fourth hole. When I tried to play it to the left, the ball hit the lip, came back down and plugged even further in the bunker. I’m happy I made up-and-down for bogey when it could have been worst,” he added.

Despite moving backwards on the leaderboard, Kapur, who is ranked 13th on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, gave himself a pat on the back for making his first cut in his second appearance at The Open since 2006.

“I think one consolation today was that I managed to hang in there and be in the mix somewhere. Hopefully I can recreate some of the magic which I did yesterday. You have a great field of players here and if you are in the top-70 then you know you got game. Obviously that’s one stumbling block out of the way and I just need to move up the leaderboard as much as I can,” said Kapur, the 2005 Asian Tour Rookie of the Year.