Atwal falters in final hole, misses cut by a shot

Memphis, May 27 (UNI) It was a heart-wrenching experience for Arjun Atwal who came tantalisingly close to making the cut but a double bogey in the final hole shattered his hopes in the 5.2 million dollar FedEx St Jude Classic here.

Luck deserted Atwal when he needed it most and the Orlando-based Indian overcame his poor opening round of 76 with a three-under 69 in the second but his two-day aggregate of 145 saw him missing the cut by just one shot.

Atwal seemed determined to put behind his string of recent poor shows and thanks to a birdie quartet, he was three-under before approaching the par-four 18th hole. But things went horribly wrong there and two dropped shots slammed the door on the Indian.

At the top of the table, unheralded American Darron Stiles soared to a two-shot lead with a six-under 64 at the TPC at Southwind.

Atwal, who missed just one cut last season, has had a poor time out there and could not make the cut in last three events -- Zurich Classic of New Orleans, EDS Byron Nelson Champ and the Bank of America Colonial.

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