Sharma fights hard to make cut and play weekend

Shubhankar Sharma worked hard to make up for the first day's modest even par card with four birdies in the first 12 holes as his continued to work towards the cut line at the low scoring ASI Scottish Open here.

Sharma was four-under with six holes left and was Tied-75th, needing at least two birdies more to make it safe as the cut go to five or even six-under.

Earlier at the Renaissance Golf Club, SSP Chawrasia (70-71) and Gaganjeet Bhullar (77-73) finished way off the cut line and exited early.

Sharma, after a first round even par 71, was three-under the front nine, in the second round. He birdied the third, sixth and the eighth on the front nine. He added one more on 11th with a good 10-footer birdie putt.

Sharma is the only Indian qualified for The Open next week and a cut this week will be an added boost for the young Indian who will turn 23 on Sunday.

Last year, he made the cut on his birthday and smiled when reminded of that.

"It was a nice feeling," he added.

Even as many of the players were yet to complete their second round, there were three new clubhouse leaders but the most impressive was Bernd Wiesberger who shot 10-under 61 to reach 14-under 128.

The other two at 14-under were Erik Van Rooyen of South Africa (64-64), who was T-8 at the PGA Championships, and Lee Slattery (64-64), who before last week's T-27 at Irish Open had missed six cuts before that.