Sharma faces tough challenge to make cut at Augusta Masters

Shubhankar Sharma was facing a tough challenge to make the cut as he was two-over through the front nine in the second round of the Masters at Augusta National.

The 21-year-old, who shot five-over 77 in the first round, is now seven-over for the tournament and has nine more holes to go in the second round.

With the cut expected to fall around 5-over, Sharma would require a couple of birdies and play the back under par to stay on in the tournament.

However, if the conditions become tougher with more breeze and harder greens, it could be touch and go for him, even at 7-over. His best hopes would be the two Par-5s on 13th and 15th, where he had birdies on the first day.

Meanwhile, all the leading stars were in trouble, as overnight leader Jordan Spieth had a double bogey-bogey start and those three dropped shots in the first two holes meant he was down to three-under.

There were six players sharing the lead at 3-under. The six included Matt Kuchar and Spieth, besides Henrik Stenson, Patrick Reed, Charley Hoffman and Adam Hadwin, who were yet to start action on Friday.

Tiger Woods who shot 73 on first day was yet to begin.

Among leading players from first day, Tony Finau dropped from 4-under to 2-under after nine and McIlroy was down from 3-under to 2-under after getting to 4-under at one stage.

There were only a handful of players under par on second day and that included Dustin Johnson two-under through four.

Sharma, who had rough opening day with eight bogeys and three birdies for a 77, was still unable to hole makeable putts and finding the greens difficult to read.

On the second day, Sharma bogeyed the par-4, just as he had on the first day, and added a second bogey on ninth to turn in two-over and was still awaiting his first birdie of the second round. He is now 7-over with nine holes to play.

On Thursday, Sharma admitted, “To be honest I not too happy with the round. I didn't finish the way I wanted to, but it was great out there, the atmosphere and everything, it was fantastic.  The back nine I was just making birdies and bogeys, until the 16th hole, and then 17th and 18th were bad.”

Summing up the first day, he said, “The putter did not work on the front nine and approach (shots did not work) on the back nine. It was a mix of both.”

Also on Thursday, Sergio Garcia, the defending champion after being 2-over through 14 holes shot a nightmarish 8-over 13 on a single hole 13, where he went into the water five times. He ended at 81.