Atwal, Chopra, Jeev fail to make cut along with Mickelsen, Norman

Castle Rock, Colorado, Aug 13 (UNI) Arjun Atwal, Jeev Milkha Singh and Indian-born Swede Daniel Chopra failed to make the cut along with big shots like American Phil Mickelsen and Australian Greg Norman after the weather-hit second round of the 5.5 million dollar The International.

While Atwal and Chopra paid the price for their horrendous opening rounds, Jeev was left to rue the missed chances after making a decent start in the event, which set the midway cut at 15 points in the modified stableford system.

The round had to be suspended due to darkness 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, which left him with no points on board.

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 dropped bogeys on the second, sixth and eighth before making a dramatic recovery, which started with the birdie on the ninth.

Two-over at the halway mark, Atwal gained four shots on the 12th, 14th, 16th and 17th but a bogey on the 10th marred his show. Tied 70th after the second round, Atwal failed in his bid to make his third successive cut following a disappointing run in the early part of the season.

Meanwhile, Indian-born Swede Daniel Chopra fired five birdies against a solitary bogey to shoot up the leaderboard to the tied 38th spot but the improved performance was not enough for him to stay in the contention.

The Swede fired a hat-trick of birdies in his flawless front nine before gaining two more shots in his backward journey. He wiped out his first round deficit to total eight points but the tally fell seven short of the set cut.

At the top, American Zach Johnson added 15 points to his two-day tally of 10 after the third round to take a two-shot lead over compatriot Steve Flesch, who fired seven birdies against a solitary bogey to add 13 points to his score after three rounds.

Under the tournament's modified Stableford scoring format, a birdie is awarded with two pints, five for an eagle and eight for an albatross (double-eagle).

A bogey leads to a one-point deduction while a double-bogey or worse causes a subtraction of three points.

UNI XC PM PR KP1102