India's Shiv Kapur felt '20 pounds lighter' after surviving the halfway cut at the US$200,000 Tianjin TEDA Open Presented by Rolls-Royce on Friday.
The young Indian, gold medallist in the 2002 Asian Games, ensured his weekend survival by shooting a two-under-par 69 at Tianjin Warner International Golf Club. He had to endure some tense moments as he was right on the cut mark with two holes to play but safely birdied his 17th hole.
"I feel about 20 pounds lighter after yesterday's 73. You don't want to start your pro career by missing a cut and I wanted to start on a positive note. I came here not thinking of just making the cut but I want to compete to win. But after yesterday, my priority was to first make the cut.
"Hopefully I can shoot some good scores at the weekend. There is a 65 in my game somewhere as I'm playing well. If I can shoot a couple of 66s or 65s then I would say I have justified my sponsor's exemption. I didn't want to disappoint the Asian Tour for giving me a spot this week. I've got a couple of rounds now to see how high I can go," said the 22-year-old.
Starting from the 10th, he turned in even par and then birdied the 11th and eagled the 12th and appeared to be coasting. But he dropped two shots in his next three holes before his late rally.
"I had a good finish. I birdied the second hole and eagled the third and on four, I hit a great shot right at the flag and went over the green and ended with a bogey. I had a bad chip on sixth for another bogey and all of the sudden, I was over par again and that sort of played in my mind at that point.
"I said I needed to get it back to even par because that was what the cut was looking at. I am kind of proud that I could bring it back and hold myself together. I hit a seven iron left of the hole and rolled in a 15 foot putt. I looked at the putt and felt good. It looked pretty straight and I just told myself to not leave it short and put in a good stroke."
