Atwal improves, Jeev slips at The International

Castle Rock, Colorado, Aug 12 (UNI) Arjun Atwal recovered from a poor start to accumulate six points and jump to the tied 70th spot but things went horribly wrong for Jeev Milkha Singh as he slipped to the tied 104th position in the weather-hit second round of the 5.5 million dollar The International.

The round had to be suspended due to darkness with the midway cut yet to be decided at the Castle Pines Golf Club here.

Jeev, who had three points after the first round, saw his advantage wiped out as he played out a disappointing seven-bogey two-birdie round. Jeev was left with no points after the horrible show.

In contrast, Atwal, who had a deficit of one point after opening day, made a fine recovery from another poor start. The Orlando-based Indian made a horrendous start as he dropped bogeys on the second, sixth and eighth. The former Asian Tour regular then made a dramatic recovery, which started with the birdie on the ninth.

Two-over at the hallway mark, Atwal gained four shots on the 12th, 14th, 16th and 17th and had it not been for a bogey on the 10th, the Indian could have finished higher.

Meanwhile, Indian-born Swede Daniel Chopra put up an excellent show as he fired five birdies against a solitary bogey to shoot up the leaderboard to the tied 38th spot. The Swede fired a hat-trick of birdies in his flawless front nine before gaining two more shots in his backward journey. A dropped shot on the 16th was the only disappointment for him as he wiped out his first round deficit to total eight points.

At the top, American Patrick Sheehan added eight points to his first round tally of 10 after a five-birdie two-bogey second round to take a one-shot lead over Canadian Ian Leggatt after adding 13 to the four points he accumulated on the opening day.

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