India's Anirban Lahiri shoots another 69, makes cut at Northern Trust golf

NEW JERSEY: India's Anirban Lahiri shot another two-under 69 in the second round of the Northen Trust golf tournament to move into the weekend action in the first play-offs at the FedExCup here.

His 69-69 moved him to four-under and was T-36, down 21 places from his overnight T-15.

Lahiri, who found 11 of the 18 greens, needs to be around 10th to make the next play-off event, the BMW Championships, and for that he will need to hole a lot more putts.

He is four strokes outside the top-10 presently, and eight behind leader Jon Rahm of Spain.

Rahm (63-67) reached 12-under as Tony Finau (67-64) was a shot behind in his search for the season-ending Tour Championship berth and a place on the Ryder Cup team.

Lahiri confessed, "To be honest, I'm running a little low on energy and I think it caught up with me towards the end a little bit."

"Four or five of the last holes, I missed putts from inside pretty much of 15 feet on all of them except for the last hole. I've been playing really well I think. Played well yesterday (Round 1) morning in the tough conditions and could have shot two or three better, and today's conditions were absolutely ideal and the golf course was right there."

"I got off to a good start and in the middle part of the round, I didn't take the opportunities that were in front of me. I've been playing well and just haven't quite made as many putts as I need."

Three pars at the start were followed by three birdies in a row as Lahiri seemed set for a low number in the second round.

Soon after missing a 13-footer for birdie on third, the Indian hit his tee shot to 18 feet on par-3 fourth and holed it.

On the 427-yard par-4 fifth hole, Lahiri hit a 178 yard-approach to 12 feet and holed it to go two-under.

The momentum continued as he drove 339 yards on Par-5 sixth and then a yet another superb second shot of 192 yards gave him an eagle putt from 12 feet but he managed only a birdie.

Yet he looked great at three-under for the round.

He missed a couple of fairways and then had very long putts till a 10-and-a-half footer on 13th, which he missed and parred.

On 14th, he missed a six footer for par and on par-4 15th he was on the fringe in two and chipped to just under feet but missed the par.

Two great shots on the par-4 16th hole saw him recover one shot and he missed a 11-footer for par on 17th.

His putter did work early with conversions of 18 feet and 13 feet for gains but later on his irons left him fighting for pars coming in.

"I've put myself in a good position for the weekend. If I keep doing what I'm doing, I just need to sharpen up on the greens and maybe get some better greens tomorrow as I won't be playing absolutely last and try to take advantage.

"I feel like I'm playing well. I just need to put 36 holes together and keep pushing my body," said Lahiri.

Olympic gold medallist Xander Schauffele tied his personal best on the PGA Tour and the course record at Liberty National with a 62 and was in the group at 10-under 132 along with Justin Thomas (69) and Keith Mitchell (64).

Thomas had two contrasting nines.

In his first nine holes, he made four bogeys in eight holes, only to play his last five holes in five-under including an eagle at the par-5 eighth.

Korea's Sungjae Im, the leading Asian in regular season, will enter the third round as the highest ranked Asian in a share of 17th place and six off the lead after a bogey-free 66.

Japan's reigning Masters winner, Hideki Matsuyama fired a 67 which included a disappointing triple bogey on his last hole for T-25 on 137.