Bhullar at T-31, Shubhankar struggles again at WGC-HSBC

Gaganjeet Bhullar produced a second successive 72 but Shubhankar Sharma continued to struggle with another eighth-over 80 in the second round of the World Golf Champions-HSBC Champions on Friday.

Bhullar, who was T-27 slipped to T-31, as Tony Finau (66-67) took a three-shot lead over first leader, Patrick Reed (64-72).

Shubhankar, playing his fourth straight WGC Championships, is now 16-over and lying at the bottom at 77th place. His best at the WGC has been T-9 in his first appearance in Mexico.

Starting from back nine, Bhullar birdied the 10th hole, double bogeyed the 18th and then picked up birdies at the second and fourth holes before dropping a shot on 17th.

Shubhankar started with a bogey on 19th and then had a double on 17th and a birdie on 18th to turn in 2-over.

On the second nine, he bogeyed five times and also had a double and just one birdie on Par-5 second.

Finau built a three-shot lead as Reed began to stumble when Finau hit an approach from the rough on the 11th hole toward the green at Sheshan International.

The ball landed on a sprinkler, shot high in the air and rolled over the back and into the hazard. It led to a double bogey and cut his lead to one shot.

Finau had a pair of birdies on the par 5s, laid up on the reachable par-4 16th and made birdie, and wound up with a 5-under 67. That put him at 11-under 133, three shots clear of Reed (72), Tommy Fleetwood (68) and defending champion Justin Rose (67).

Rose won last year by rallying from eight shots behind on the final day, so a three-shot deficit shouldn't look all that daunting. He plodded his way around the course and kept bogeys off his card. He missed a 15-foot eagle attempt on the last hole.

This year Finau had 10 finishes in the top 10 and his consistency led to him making his first Ryder Cup.

Dustin Johnson after a quick start shot 73 and was 14 shots behind. Rory McIlroy was even worse. It took him 15 shots to play the two par 5s on the front nine, taking a triple bogey on No. 2 and a double bogey on the par-5 eighth hole.