Osaka (Japan): It was a disastrous outing for Indians golfers here as none of the six starters were able to make the halfway cut at the Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open golf tournament on Friday. Three of the Indians missed the cut by one shot at the USD 1.48 million event sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour.
Anirban Lahiri, who shot a 79 on first day went down to 68 in the second, but even that was not enough. Jyoti Randhawa (76-71) and Digvijay Singh (76-71) were also eliminated with totals of 147, just one outside the cut mark of 146.
C Muniyappa (79-70), Shiv Kapur (75-75) and Himmat Rai (76-74) also fell by the wayside.
Both Lahiri and Kapur were done in by finishing blues. Lahiri seemed to have fought back well after a first round 79. He had a birdie-birdie start and then gained a stroke at the seventh. But back-to-back bogeys meant he was back to one-under for the day.
Lahiri picked himself up again with three birdies between 13th and 16th. At that stage he was just inside the cut line, but a closing bogey saw him crash out.
Kapur started from tenth and double bogeyed the 11th and then closed with three bogeys in last four holes. Pariya Junhasavasdikul of Thailand soared into the lead after the halfway stage when he sank a clutch birdie putt on the last hole.
The Thai, who started from the 10th tee, struggled to get his round going and needed a 15 footer birdie putt to send him to the top of the leaderboard at the Ibaraki Country Club. He posted a one-under 70 to hold a one-shot lead from overnight leader Shingo Katayama of Japan, who struggled to a two-over 73.
Tetsuji Hiratsuka of Japan, who won the 2011 Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open, battled to a 66 to share third position with Masahiro Kawamura.
Rory Hie (69) of Indonesia was a further shot back alongside Young Han Song (69) of Korea, Yoshikazu Haku (66) of Japan and Brad Kennedy (66) of Australia.
Pariya, ranked 15th on the Order of Merit, bogeyed three and six to slip down the leaderboard but bounced back brilliantly after some coaxing from his caddy.
"I left three or four putts short in my round, so on the last hole my caddy told me that I needed to hole the putt or he will throw me in the water! I thought I had left it short again but luckily it trickled into the hole," Pariya laughed.
The Thai admits that he did not play spectacular golf on an ideal scoring day but was delighted to stay on track for a third Asian Tour win.
"It was a bit of a struggling round. I couldn't get anything going. I didn't do anything spectacular but I birdied the last hole (15 feet) so all was forgiven! I'm still in the mix and in with a chance. I'm a bit disappointed but not as much because I'm still up there," he said.
Katayama, holder of 26 titles in Japan, failed to emulate his opening round magic when he stumbled to a 73 which included three birdies and five bogeys.
Indonesia's Hie made four birdies in 12 holes but made bogeys on holes 15 and 16. He nearly dropped more shots on the last but saved the round with a splendid par save from the greenside bunker. The halfway cut was set at three-over-par 145 with a total of 60 players making the weekend rounds.
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