India's Anirban Lahiri shoots par, lies three behind leaders in Florida

Lahiri, whose best finish this season has been tied 10th at the Mayakoba Classic in early November, has missed his last two cuts at the Desert Classic and the Genesis Open

Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri fired an even-par round of 70, but dropped a few places to tied 13th at the midway stage of the Honda Classic at the PGA National here. Lahiri, whose best finish this season has been tied 10th at the Mayakoba Classic in early November, has missed his last two cuts at the Desert Classic and the Genesis Open.

So, to find his putting form and make the cut in a decent position here Friday, was indeed a good beginning before the upcoming weekend. Lahiri is three-under and tied 13th alongside first round leader, Jhonattan Vegas (64-73), wile Korean Sungjae Im and American Keith Mitchell are tied for the lead at six-under.

Lucas Glover, who won the US Open exactly 10 years ago in 2009 at Bethpage, is third at five-under and a big crowd that includes Brooks Koepka are fourth at four-under. The bunch includes Freddie Jacobson, Kyoung-Hoon Lee, Adam Svensson, Sung Kang, Adam Schenk, Ryan Armour, Wyndham Clark, and Danny Lee. In his second round at the Honda Classic, Lahiri hit nine of 14 fairways and nine of 18 greens in regulation, and had another fine day on the greens missing no putts within 10 feet.

He also had a nice 26-footer for par on the 10th, which was his first hole of the day. Majority of his putts were inside five to six feet as his approaches were excellent and in case of long putts, he made the first one nicely to get inside three to four feet. As for the bogeys, on the 14th (his fifth hole) he went into the fairway bunker of the tee and did not get to the green from there.

On 16th too, he went into the rough in the second shot and from there he hit to 14 feet from the flag but missed the par putt from there. On par-3 17th, Lahiri found the green but was 57 feet away from the hole. His first putt saw him get safely to two and a half feet for par and on 18th, he hit a beautiful pitch to three and a half feet for a birdie. On the second nine, he had six straight pars followed by a nice tee on par-3 seventh to inside eight feet, which he holed for a birdie to reach even par.

The cut fell at two-over 142 and 83 players made it, meaning there will be a third round cut too, since there are more than 78 players making the cut. The top 70 and ties will make the 54-hole cut. Defending champion Justin Thomas made the cut following a four-over 74 and a total of 142, but Adam Scott (+3), Jimmy Walker (+6), Erik Compton (+7) missed out.

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