McGrane opens up two-shot lead in Delhi
Damien McGrane produced another conservative but productive round at the tight tree-lined Delhi Golf Club this morning to open up a two-stroke lead over Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell and South Africa’s Hendrik Buhrmann at the midway point of the second round at the Indian Masters.
McGrane followed up his opening round five-under-par 67, which had left the 36-year-old world number 311 in second place and two shots back of Indian number one Jyoti Randhawa, with a conservative 69 in chilly conditions in the Indian capital.
McGrane two putted the 11th green, his second after beginning on the back nine, to drop a stroke, but responded to reach the turn in level par after converting a three foot putt three holes later after laying and playing a deft sand wedge into the pin.
A 20-foot birdie putt at the third was disappointingly followed up with a two putt from 15 feet a hole later after finding the greenside bunker with his approach.
But back-to-back birdies at five and six, both created after solid six iron approach shots, quickly followed before he ended the round on a high by slipping a 10 foot birdie putt in at the last to extend his advantage.
“I backed up yesterday’s round with a good round today. I played a lot of good shots and gave myself a lot of birdie chances. I seem to be birdying the more difficult holes than the easy ones, but you take the birdies whenever you can get them,” said McGrane.
“It is very cold, it was a lot more difficult than it was yesterday so three-under-par is a good number and I am happy enough. The ball did lose a bit of distance with the cold, but if you hit the ball well you will have a lot of birdie chances.
“I have been playing well lately so all I had to do was keep going, hitting as many good shots as I can and I seemed to hole a few putts when I had the chances.”
