Abu Dhabi, Jan 17 (PTI) Shubhankar Sharma safely sailed into the weekend rounds of the 2020 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship with a two-under 70 but he was not much happy with his iron play and approach shots.

At three-under 141 for 36 holes, he is Tied-37th, while fellow Indian, Gaganjeet Bhullar (79-74) exited early from the tournament, as the cut fell at one-under 143.

Frenchman Francesco Laporta closed with a brilliant streak of five birdies over the last five holes to card a bogey-free 63 and overtook Matt Fitzpatrick whose blemish-free 67 in the morning had set the early clubhouse target.

Just before Laporta finished, Rafa Cabrera Bello carded four-under 68 to add to his first round 67 and joined Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick, who has won once in Dubai at the DP World, and Cabrera-Bello are one shot behind at 135.

"Once again the iron shots did not work well. I did not get close to the pin often enough to give myself more chances. The front nine was a good start that I was looking for. But I needed to hit my irons better," said Shubhankar.

"The putting was also not the way I liked. Maybe a little rust after the break for more than month, but hopefully it will turn around over the weekend," he added.

Sharma had four birdies against two bogeys, and he also rued missing out on birdies on three of the four Par-5s.

"I need to get those score better. In the first round I missed out on two Par-5s and today I did not birdies on three of them."

Bhullar, who had a triple bogey on Par-3 seventh, started with a double on Par-5 10thand had two other bogeys and two birdies as he missed the cut by a huge margin.

Trailing the top three, Laporta, Fitzpatrick and Cabrera-Bello, are three players at eight-under including first-round co-leader, Renato Paratore (72) and the others are Sergio Garcia (67-69) and Li Haotong (67-69).

Among the world stars missing the cut was the 2019 Open winner and the defending champion in Abu Dhabi, Shane Lowry (70-74) who finished bogey-bogey and crashed out.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)