Hyogo, Japan: Shiv Kapur of India stayed in contention at the Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open after he shot a round of three under 68 to end the second day at tied eighth position.
Kapur who played a good round of four under 67 yesterday and is on seven under 135 after two days is just three shots adrift of the leader Hiroyuki Fujita who carded three under 71to end the halfway stage on 10 under 132. He is trailed by Darren Beck, Juvic Pagunsan and Koumei Oda by just one stroke.
Kapur the lone Indian in contention right now sank four birdies against one bogey.
The Delhi golfer, who has a win on the Asian Tour said that he was happy to be in contention even though he could not play his best game.
“I didn’t have my ‘A-Game’. It was probably a ‘B’ off the tees but I was sharp on the greens. Every time I seem to miss the greens, I get an up-and-down and that sort of took the pressure off the round. I think that was basically the story of the day,” said the 2005 Asian Tour Rookie of the Year.
Kapur who landed in Japan straight from Italy said,
“It is pretty good except for the fact that I haven’t had much sleep in the last couple of days. I came straight from the Italian Open and I’m a bit jet lagged. I got two hours of sleep last night so I didn’t have much energy out there and wasn’t hitting the ball the way I liked.”
“I only got in to Japan on Tuesday night from Italy. This is my fifth week in a row and I’m feeling a little bit of fatigue. Obviously playing early like this gives me some time to recover. I’ll do some practice later and get a lot of sleep,” he added.
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Scores:
132 - Hiroyuki Fujita (JPN) 64-68.
133 - Darren Beck (AUS) 68-65, Juvic Pagunsan (PHI) 67-66, Koumei ODA (JPN) 64-69.
134 - Masamichi Uehira (JPN) 66-68, Hideto Tanihara (JPN) 67-67, Yusaku Miyazato (JPN) 64-70.
135 - Shiv Kapur (IND) 67-68, Daisuke Kataoka (JPN) 67-68, Masahiro Kawamura (JPN) 70-65, Tomohiro Kondo (JPN) 66-69.
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Talking about the course he said, “I grinded hard and my short game was sharp. I’m pretty happy. At the start of the week I would have taken my score. The course is playing quite receptive and the greens are true. I took advantage of the calm morning conditions. The course set-up is tough but fair. You hit good shots you get rewarded and if you hit bad shots you will get severely penalized.”
Kapur who is bidding for his second Asian Tour title said that he is looking forward to the weekend and hopes to keep up his good performance.
“Obviously you want to win in any tournament. I would like to go out and play well during the weekend and give myself a chance on Sunday. The key on this course is around the greens and I seem to have that touch in the last two days so hopefully I can keep that ‘Midas’ touch.”
