Lahiri tied 2nd after halfway stage in 2nd round

Anirban Lahiri was on fire in the second round after a solid 69 in his first round Greenbrier Classic.

A bogeyfree 3-under 67 gave Lahiri a good start in the opening round. Then he had four birdies in first five holes to move to 7-under and was tied-2nd at one stage.

He has still has more than nine holes to play in second round.

The 31-year-old Indian, who has been slowly coming into the form that fetched him two top-10 finishes and some other good results at the start of the wrap-around season last October, opened with a birdie and then had 10 pars before finding further birdies on 12th and 18th.

In the second round, he had three in a row to start the day with birdies from 15 feet, 12 feet and 19 feet. He parred the 13th, his fourth hole of the second day, and then again holed 14-footer for his fourth birdie.

On Thursday, despite the fine start, Lahiri was lying tied 24th with Webb Simpson, who shot 9-under 61 to lead the field by a shot over Whee Kim.

It was Simpson's best career score and it came after waiting out a two-hour weather delay with six holes left in his round.

He came up short in his bid to shoot the eighth sub-60 round on the PGA TOUR. He needed birdies on the par-5 17th and the par-3 18th for a 59 but found only pars on both.

Kim had six birdies and two bogeys, which were back-to-back, between the second and ninth and on back nine he had four more birdies for a total of 10 birdies and two bogeys in his 62. The 26-year-old Kim has never won on the PGA TOUR.

Teenager Joaquin Niemann of Chile was another stroke back at 7-under 63. Kelly Kraft carded 64 while Jason Kokrak, Keegan Bradley and J.J. Henry were at 65.

Simpson, whose four-shot victory at THE PLAYERS Championship in May was his first win in more than four years, finished third here in 2014 and lost a one-stroke lead on the back nine in the final round in 2011 and 2012.

Defending champion Xander Schauffele was among a large group at 4-under 66, which includes Phil Mickelson, playing in his first tournament since the U.S. Open.

Bubba Watson, starting on the back nine, hurt his wrist on a bunker shot on No. 11 and finished the round and shot 2-under 68.