GOLF:SPAIN'S RAFAEL Cabrera-Bello finished day two of the European Tour Avantha Masters a shot clear but had six players hot on his heels at the DLF Golf and Country Club in New Delhi yesterday.
Cabrera-Bello added a second-round 69 to his opening 67 – a round he completed yesterday morning – to reach the halfway point on eight under par, with England’s Robert Coles – who carded a second-round 67 – among those a stroke back alongside Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat (67), India’s Shiv Kapur (65) and Denmark’s Mark F Haastrup (66).
Two of Asia’s biggest golfing superstars, India’s Jeev Milkha Singh and Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee, were also on seven under still with seven holes remaining of their second rounds after play was suspended for the day at 6.10pm local time due to bad light.
The duo were among the half of the field unable to complete 36 holes over the first two days, with Thursday’s day’s three-and-a-half-hour fog delay having set proceedings back.
Belfast man Gareth Maybin did manage to complete his round, and lies on three-under after shooting a 71.
Paul McGinley added a 75 to his opening 76 to lie near the foot of the leaderboard on seven-over.
Cabrera-Bello looked set to establish a more substantial advantage when he headed into his final three holes on 10 under, but he dropped a shot at the seventh and then found water on the par-five ninth and missed his 10-foot putt for par. All things considered, though, he was more than satisfied with his day’s work after five birdies over the first 15 holes.
“Overall, nothing went particularly wrong so I can’t have too many complaints,” he said.
“I started really well, hit some great shots and made some great putts.
“Then on the back nine I struggled a little bit off the tee and didn’t manage to hit as many fairways as I would have liked, which then meant that I didn’t create as many opportunities.”
He added: “I am playing well but this is a very weird sport and you have to try to focus day by day and shot by shot and if I am in with a chance on Sunday I will try to take it.”
Three-time European Tour winner Singh picked up four shots over the final four holes of his first round and then added a further three birdies on the first 11 of his second round to get himself in the mix.
Jaidee, whose four European Tour victories have all come on Asian soil, bogeyed the first hole of his second round but carded five birdies over the next 10 to also get himself in contention.
First-round leader Robert-Jan Derksen, though, made a poor start to his second round and the Dutchman was two over through nine holes when play was halted.
Second-round action was to resume at 7.15am local time this morning (0145 GMT), with round three not starting before 10.45 (5.15am GMT).
SECOND ROUND scores and totals (Irish in bold and Brit unless stated, par 72):
136 – Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spn) 67 69; 137 – Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 70 67, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 72 65, Mark F Haastrup (Den) 71 66, Robert Coles 70 67; 138 – Wei Chih Lu (Tha) 70 68, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 70 68; 139 – Thomas Norret (Den) 69 70, Marc Warren 69 70, Darren Beck (Aus) 67 72, Joost Luiten (Ned) 68 71, Angelo Que (Phi) 71 68, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 69 70, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 70 69, Pablo Larrazabal (Spn) 69 70; 141 – Lee Slattery 75 66, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 70, Gareth Maybin 70 71, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 71 70; 142 – Alvaro Velasco (Spn) 69 73, Seuk-hyun Baek (Kor) 72 70, Iain Steel (Mal) 67 75, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 71; 143 – Adam Gee 75 68, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 74 69; 144 – Yih-Shin Chan (Tpe) 72 72, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 71 73, Sung Lee (Kor) 73 71, Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 72 72, Anthony Kang (USA) 73 71, Brett Rumford (Aus) 75 69, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 72 72, Tetsuji Hiratsuka (Jpn) 72 72, C Muniyappa (Ind) 73 71, Rick Kulacz (Aus) 72 72, Danny Chia (Mal) 75 69; 145 – Daniel Gaunt (Aus) 73 72, Sanjay Kumar (Ind) 74 71, Mukesh Kumar (Ind) 74 71, Gaurav Pratap Singh (Ind) 77 68, Udorn Duangdecha (Tha) 70 75, Graeme Storm 74 71, Jason Knutzon (USA) 73 72, Paul Broadhurst 73 72;
146 – Ashok Kumar (Ind) 70 76, Marcel Siem (Ger) 70 76, Manav Jaini (Ind) 74 72, Digvijay Singh (Ind) 76 70; 147 – In-choon Hwang (Kor) 77 70, Richie Ramsay 78 69, Amandeep Johl (Ind) 70 77, Steven O’Hara 74 73, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 75 72; 148 – Md Zamal Hossain Mollah (Bd) 71 77, Shankar Das (Ind) 76 72, Vijay Kumar (Ind) 76 72, Raju Ali Mollah (Ind) 76 72; 150 – Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 76 74, Vinod Kumar (Ind) 77 73; 151 – Marcus Both (Aus) 79 72, Aruna Rohana (Lk) 76 75, Paul McGinley 76 75; 154 – Vishal Singh (Ind) 75 79; 155 – Gurki Shergill (Ind) 76 79.
