Chopra recovers to tied 58th at Houston Open

Houston, Apr 22 (UNI) A hat-trick of birdies on the front-nine helped Daniel Chopra recover from a poor start and card a three-under 69 before rain and darkness halted the second round of the 5.3 million dollar Shell Houston Open here.

Playing his back-nine first the Indian-born Swede made the worst possible start, dropping three shots between 10th and 14th holes before recovering with two successive birdies in the 16th and 17th.

After signing off his back-nine with a level-par shot, Chopra got off to a flyer in his front-nine, firing a hat-trick of birdies from second to fourth. He gained two more shots beween sixth and eighth before finishing his round with a disappointing bogey.

The Swede, who has failed to make the cut in three back-to-back events preceeding this, is all set to make the breakthrough here with a two-day total of one-under 143.

Meanwhile, leader Stuart Appleby's charge was halted by the weather as the rain prevented the Australian from completing his last two holes of the second round.

But Appleby remained a shot clear of Englishman Greg Owen (134), who birdied five of his last six holes to card a seven-under 65 and jump eight places up the leaderboard.

UNI XC PM DKS DS1140