Kapur’s (68-77) second round of 77 featured two birdies
against eight bogeys and took his total to three-over-145. The Delhi
golfer trails the leader Miguel Angel Jimenez (68-71) of Spain by six
shots. World no. 1 Tiger Woods (69-71) is in tied second along with fellow
American Dustin Johnson, Englishman Lee Westwood and Swede Henrik Stenson, one
stroke behind the leader.
The cut fell at eight-over-150. Eighty-two professionals and
two amateurs made the cut.
Kapur, playing in his second Major, admitted that he could
not help feeling ecstasy and agony in so short a period, yet he kept his
composure. “On a course where scores have been tough and conditions so
demanding, to be three-over is alright,” he said.
From six-under after nine on the first day, Shiv ended at
three-under. Then on Friday he went six-over for the day and ended at
three-over for 36 holes. Yet he was in the top half of the players who will
play over the final two rounds and he has enough chance to improve on the best
finish-ever by an Indian at tied 27th achieved by Jyoti Randhawa way back
in 2004.
Kapur also became only the fourth Indian after Jyoti
Randhawa (2004), Anirban Lahiri (2012) and Jeev Milkha Singh (2012) to make the
cut at the British Open. Only Jeev has made the cut at the other three Majors,
too.
Kapur struggled from the start after four bogeys on the
first six holes. “I went into the bunkers far too often and had to keep
guessing the wind direction as it kept changing. It was like playing over two
different courses over two days. But then that’s links golf. It’s exciting and
yet very challenging and frustrating.”
With his score at four-over after six, Shiv sank birdies on
the ninth and 12th and dropped bogeys on the 10th and 13th to
stay at four-over till the 17th tee. He then signed off the day with a
bogey-bogey finish on the last two holes.
“Today the wind was totally opposite. So when you're
standing on the tees you're trying to figure out -- it's a lot of guesswork.
For example, on the ninth hole today I've hit 3-iron off the tee followed by a
6-iron. Yesterday on the same hole, I hit driver, 2-iron, 8-iron, you know. So
it's a completely different golf course,” said Kapur of the conditions.
He added, “When you get off to a bad start, you're just
trying to hang on, because there's not too many birdie opportunities, so to
speak. I thought I did a pretty good job after that bad start to hang on for a
while. Unfortunately I had the dreaded "S" word (shank) on the 17th
with my third shot. I had a wedge in there and I shanked it onto the green and
actually did well to make a bogey. A bad drive on 18th meant a finishing bogey.
But I felt I did well to hang on and keep the score for 16 holes.”
His putting let him down in a way. “Yeah, the putter was
just not hot. Yesterday you're holing putts and the game seems easy. I hit a
lot of good putts that didn't really go in. I had a horseshoe out on 13. It
came straight back at me.”
He added, “On the front nine I found myself leaving quite a
few putts short, because in any mind I still had the speed from yesterday. You
can't get yourself to hit it far enough past the hole, because you've seen them
roll that far past yesterday. But on the back nine, I'm told they're drying out
again. On the last five or six holes, some of that stuff that happened yesterday
afternoon was happening again.”
Speaking of his first day experience, he said, “Yeah,
definitely yesterday gave me a lot of self-belief that, hey, if you're going to
lead a Major at some point, you can do it. The more times you put yourself in
that position, the better you'll be at it. I think that's the difference
between, perhaps me, and most of the players. They regularly get themselves in
contention. But the fact that I even did it for nine holes means the ability is
there, it's just a question of getting a bit more consistency in the game and
being able to do it on a regular basis.”
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