Sandhu in top-10 at Taipei, Bhullar slips; 8 Indians make cut

Taipei: Ajeetesh Sandhu shot a second successive three-under 69 to stay on in the top-10 of the Yeangder Tournament Players Championship (TPC) on Friday.

Meanwhile, Gaganjeet Bhullar, a past champion here, slipped sharply with a second round of 76 as he dropped from third to T-40th.

Other Indians making the cut were Shubhankar Sharma (72-69) and S Chikkarangappa (74-67) were T-12th, Arjun Atwal (72-72), Bhullar (68-76), Chiragh Kumar (73-71) and Shiv Kapur (73-71) were all even par and T-40th. Rahil Gangjee (75-71) also squeezed into the weekend action at T-65th. A total of eight Indians made the cut, while seven missed it.

Jeev Milkha Singh (74-74), Khalin Joshi (76-72), Honey Baisoya (78-72), Arjun Prasad (71-79), Himmat Rai (77-73), Sujjan Singh (79-75) and Rashid Khan (retd) missed the cut. Sandhu had five birdies against two bogeys for his 69 and had two closing birdies on 17th and 18th.

Johannes Veerman stayed in contention for a first Asian Tour win despite dropping late bogeys in the second round.

The 25-year-old American enjoyed a strong start before dropping three bogeys in his closing four holes to settle for a three-under-par 69 at the $500,000 Asian Tour event.

Veerman's total of eight-under-par 136 gave him a one-stroke advantage over Lu Wei-chih (68), the 2011 Yeangder TPC champion, Jazz Janewattananond (67) of Thailand, Dodge Kemmer (69) of the United States and Sung Mao-chang (67). Sattaya Supupramai of Thailand and Sandhu carded a 68 and 69, respectively to trail the leader by two shots.