Atwal misses cut at Chrysler Championship, loses PGA Tour card

Miami, Oct 28 (UNI) Arjun Atwal lost his card for the PGA Tour next season after failing to make the cut at the Chrysler Championship with a horrendous four-over 75 in the second round here.

The Orlando-based Indian squandered a brilliant start and finished with a total of nine-over 151. Atwal, currently ranked 137th in the money list, needed to end strongly in this event to avoid going to the Qualifying School.

The former Asian Tour leader could not have asked for a better start as he hit back-to-back birdies on the first and second followed by another on the fifth. However, disaster struck soon after and Atwal stumbled to two bogeys and an equal number of double bogeys on the next four holes.

The sudden slump saw Atwal making the turn at three-over but Atwal recovered to gain a shot on the 10th before a superb eagle on the 14th arrested the slide. However, the recovery did not last long and the Indian stumbled to two bogeys before signing off with a double bogey on the 18th.

Atwal, who has played full time on the US PGA Tour since 2005, has accumulated 550,535 dollar this season and trails the 125th ranked Bubba Dickerson by nearly 100,000 dollar.

The 2004 Asian tour number one has missed the cut on 16 out of 32 events so far and has only one top-10 finish this year, a tied for fourth place at the Buick Invitational at the start of the year.

Korea's Choi Kyung-ju grabbed the second round lead after firing a superb five-under 66 to take a total to eight-under 134. He holds a one-stroke lead over South African Ernie Els and Americans Jonathan Byrd and Brian Gay in the 5.3 million dollar event.

Indian-born Swede Daniel Chopra shot a 72 for joint 11th spot.

The Chrysler Championship is the final full-field event in the US this season, with the top-30 on the money list qualifying for the Tour Championship next week.

UNI XC PM SI VV1120