Late eagle saves the day for Atwal

Spaniard Sergio Garcia managed to get the better of the wind conditions to come back with a bogey-free round of one-under 71 to stay in the lead with a one-shot advantage over defending champion, Joey Sindelaar, who brought in the best card of the day of five-under 67, Vijay Singh and DJ Trahan. At seven-under 137, it is Garcia’s first 36-hole lead in nearly four years on the PGA Tour.

There were 15 players within five shots of the lead. That included Tiger Woods, who has made 11 birdies the first two rounds. But his three bogeys over his last seven holes for a 72 saw him at five shots behind the leader at 2-under 142.

Atwal, who has had two top-5 finishes in just over a month, was on the bubble for the first nine with one birdie and one bogey as he turned in even par. On the back nine, he seemed to have lost the plot as he bogeyed three holes in four at the tenth, 12th and 13th and suddenly at three-over for the day and six-over for the tournament, he seemed as good as out.

Atwal facing the possibility of missing weekend play for the first time in six starts, then came up with the eagle when he needed it most and vaulted to one-over for the day and four-over for the two rounds and with pars on last three holes, he survived and will have the weekend to improve his standing further.

He had 28 putts for the day, a slight improvement on his 31 on first day, though off the tee he was struggling and had an accuracy rate of just 36 per cent, but better iron play allowed him to reach the greens on just over 60 per cent of the occasions.

The cut after first day seemed to be coming at two-over and the midway through the second round, it seemed to be three-over. But finally the cut line came at four-over, among the highest this season.

Chopra, ninth last week at Zurich Classic of New Orleans, had a forgettable round of six-over 78.