At tied-9th, Shubhankar likely to make 32-man cut as lightning halts play in Cyprus

Paphos (Cyprus), November 6

Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma positioned himself well to make it to the third round after lightning forced an early stoppage in the second round of the Aphrodite Hills Cyprus showdown.

The top-32 and ties will progress to the third and only the top-16 will move to the final round.

The scores will be reset for third and fourth rounds.

For now, Sharma is 5-under through 16 holes in the second round and his two-round total is 9-under with two holes to play. He is placed tied-9th.

As many as 22 players have finished their second round at 6-under or better. Another 11 players are at 6-under, but have yet to finish their second round. Further, two more players are at 5-under and have a few holes left.

Meanwhile, SSP Chawrasia (73-67) will miss the cut, even as he was tied-63.

Jamie Donaldson (66 and 7-under through 15 holes in second) was leading the field at 12-under but James Morrison with a second round of 63 on top of a first round 68 is the clubhouse leader at 11-under.

Sharing the clubhouse lead with Morrison is Johannes Veerman (67-64).

However, the scores of the first two rounds will cease to have a bearing as scores will be reset for the third round and again for the final round.

Denmark’s Rasmus Hojgaard was among those needing a strong finish in order to reach the latter stages of the Aphrodite Hills Cyprus showdown after lightning caused the second round to run into Saturday.

Hojgaard is 5-under right now. With 23 of the 105-man field still having holes remaining when bad light caused play to be abandoned on Friday, six under looks likely to be the mark needed to make the cut. PTI