India’s Shubhankar Sharma was unable to convert his early chances and lost the momentum around the turn to finish with a round of one-over 72 to drop to tied 53rd at the halfway stage of the Turkish Airlines Open golf tournament here Friday.
Shubhankar, who shot one-under 70 on first day, is now even par for 36 holes and will need to get a couple of solid rounds to get his confidence back and also make a nice move up the leaderboard.
Defending champion Justin Rose made a definite move towards defending his title and taking the world no. 1 spot as he moved two shots clear of the field going into the weekend.
He shot a second successive 65 at Regnum Carya Golf & Spa Resort to move to 12-under.
England’s Tom Lewis fired the lowest round of the week so far with a 63 to get to 10- under alongside countryman and 2016 Masters Champion Danny Willett (65), and Danish Ryder Cup star Thorbj rn Olesen (67), who three-putted for a bogey on the last while Rose birdied the same minutes later.
“Honestly not a very good round. Started off well, as I had birdie opportunities on the first three holes but did not take them. Then I made a silly bogey on fourth. It wasn’t actually a bad shot, it landed next to pin, which cut to the back. The ball went over the edge and had a tough up and down which I missed and made a bogey,” Shubhankar said after the second round.
“I made a bit of a comeback with birdies on seven and eight and a had a good chance on ninth.
“The three-putt on the 10th changed the momentum and then I had a short birdie putt on 11th, which I missed. I had a bad lie in the bunker on 12th and made a bogey there. On the back nine, I made bogeys on both par-5s and that ended my round,” he added.
Shubhankar bogeyed both par-5s on 12th and 16th on back nine. He did have a birdie on 13th but it was not enough to salvage the round.
Of the Asian Tour players, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who was in the top 10 till the 17th, had a crippling bogey on 18th and fell to six-under and tied 17th.
Matt Wallace (70), Gavin Green (70) were both five-under for two rounds to be placed tied 25th, while Wade Ormsby (68) was three-under for tied 31st. Wang Jeunghun (71) was tied 45th and Scott Hend (74) was tied 74th.