Stars get the chill

Bitterly cold, drizzly and with a breeze that froze nose-tips 8212; the morning8217;s weather conditions...

Bitterly cold, drizzly and with a breeze that froze nose-tips 8212; the morning8217;s weather conditions were hard, to say the least. The first one to catch a cold off the Irish summer, unfortunately, was yesterday8217;s star.

In a stunning 12-shot difference from the terrific start, Jyoti Randhawa carded a dismal five-over today. He8217;s slid down to 15th spot at the halfway mark of the Emaar-MGF Indian Masters, and taking over his top position is a player who might have thought Delhi Golf Club was somewhere back home.

Ireland8217;s Damien McGrane8217;s three-under on a day of terrible numbers on those scorecards gives him an aggregate of eight-under 136 for the second round lead.

North Irishman Graeme McDowell is tied for second with France8217;s Raphael Jacquelin and Hendrik Buhrmann from South Africa.

Down five rungs on the leaderboard are finally the Indian names of Arjun Atwal and Digvijay Singh. Tied for sixth with England8217;s Benn Barham, Dane Thomas Bjorn, Maarten Lafeber from the Netherlands and Spaniard Jose Manuel Lara, the two are four off the lead.

Ernie Els is, well, a bit low in the order. The crowd-puller pasted together a two-under today and to almost everyone8217;s relief made it to the weekend with a one-over aggregate. Jeev Milkha Singh wasn8217;t as lucky with a first day8217;s repeat of five-over.

The cut was applied at three-over.

Randhawa had started the day with a dropped shot on the starting 10th, followed by a very short putt-miss on the 16th, showing him much of the day to come.

Story continues below this ad

Moving to the first hole, his second shot got stuck badly in the thorny bush. Off the penalty drop he reached the edge of the green, having to two-putt to the hole.

A minor respite came in a second hole birdie, but the chill really caught up thereafter.

The 35-year-old trusts this course so much, that he didn8217;t imagine himself in trouble even after the errant tee shot on the par-four sixth found the bush. But with his father Brig Randhir Singh and Milkha Singh looking on, it was a long walk back to the tee box.

The chip out from the greenside bunker on the right left him with too long a putt. On a day when the touch was just not there 8212; he was already two-over by then 8212; the roll missed the target to give him a triple bogey. He bogeyed the next too, three putting the par-three seventh. A terrific chip-putt on the eighth gave him the only second birdie on the par-five eighth, but by then he was at the point of no return.

LEADERBOARD

Story continues below this ad

136 Damien McGrane Irl; 138 Hendrik Buhrmann RSA, Graeme McDowell NIR, Raphael Jacquelin Fra;

139 Mikael Lundberg Swe; 140 Arjun Atwal Ind, Thomas Bjorn Den, Digvijay Singh Ind, Benn Barham Eng, etc;

141 Darren Clarke NIR, Henrik Nystrom Swe, SSP Chowrasia Ind;

142 Brendan Jones, Jyoti Randhawa Ind etc.;

143 Phillip Archer Eng, Ross McGowan Eng, etc;

144 Simon Yates Sco, Gaurav Ghei Ind, etc;

145 Ernie Els RSA, etc.