KAEC, Jan 31: College roommates, Victor Perez of France and Malaysia’s Gavin Green, occupied the top two spots at the halfway mark of the Saudi International on Friday. Perez added a second straight 65 to get to double digits at 10-under just as Green had finished three holes. Three hours later he carded 67 to get to 9-under and now old college friends will play in the last group on Saturday.
Meanwhile, India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar waged a great battle in windy conditions to survive the cut on the line. After 74 on first day, Bhullar played steady for 3-under 67 to get to one-over and got in at T-65. He had to wait till almost the end, as a birdie on 18thby last week’s runner-up in Dubai, Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa could have knocked out 10 players including Bhullar, Ernie Els, Li Haotong and Justin Harding.
Bhullar, who clawed his way back to one-over for the tournament, fell to 2-over with a bogey on sixth, his 15thhole. He repaired the damage on seventh with a birdie and it helped him make it.
“I need to make good use of this over the weekend,” said Bhullar, who was T-34 last year.
However, Shubhankar Sharma, 2-under in first round, had a rough day with hardly any putts falling. He ended with 75 for a 3-over total of and missed the cut by two. He had two doubles, four bogeys and just three birdies. “Nothing worked today. Putting let me down,” said Sharma, who had a four-putt besides going into water once.
There was drama as third placed Graeme McDowell (64-68), incurred a ‘bad time’ for slow play on fifth soon after being interviewed on the fairway. Earlier he was put on ‘monitoring’ on fourth. He loses a shot if he gets a second bad time.
Green and Pérez, teammates and roommates, at the University of New Mexico for four years, were excited at getting a chance to play together in the lead pairing.
Green said, “This really will be fun and we will catch up a lot, too. Maybe I will pick his brains, too, he has been playing so well.”
Soon after his round, Perez, who had his breakthrough win at Dunhill Links last year, said it would be fun play with Green in the lead pairing. A little later his wish was granted.
Green added, “We played together so often in college and interestingly we played together in Saudi last year, too.” Last year Perez and Green played the third round together but seven groups ahead of the lead pair. Green ended T-11 and Perez was T-13. Now they are playing for bigger stakes.
Green, starting in the afternoon, caught up with the Frenchman at 10-under but dropped a shot on par-3 17thwhere he left it short and missed the par putt. He finished one behind Perez.
Perez was four-under with no bogeys for his first nine, the back stretch of the course, before getting one-under with three birdies and one bogey on second nine.
Green, whose best is runner-up at Hero Indian Open in 2017, added, “A bit like yesterday, I had two three-putts and hit 18 greens, can’t complain. The greens are so tricky out here, especially with the wind, which picked up towards the last few holes. We could tell because a few holes were like, almost a three-club wind.”
Perez said, “I think it was important to keep the hammer down after obviously an expected 65 in the wind yesterday. I think they were definitely the tougher conditions (today).”
He added, “Obviously I feel like I’m getting more confident (after he dunhills Links win last year) and it’s about putting yourself in contention as much as possible.”
Thai Jazz Janewattananond (68-66), showed why he has risen to inside Top-40 so fast with a fine display. He birdied the 11th, 12th and 17th and dropped a shot on the third before making further gains on the fifth and seventh.Jazz shares fifth with Victor Dubuisson (69-65), Ross Fisher (66-68) and Henrik Stenson (65-69).
Defending champion Dustin Johnson (67-68) and World No. 1 Brooks Koepka (70-69) were T-8 and T-40 respectively.
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