Fighting a bad viral, Shiv Kapur played a superb round of four-under 68 to not only make the cut but also move up the leaderboard in the Nordea Masters, here today.
Kapur's 68 brought his two-day total to two-under 142 and Tied-36th place with a fair number of golfers still out on the course for the second round.
While Kapur ensured work over the weekend, Jeev Milkha Singh (75-84) exited early as did Daniel Chopra (76-72).
"I have been fighting a really bad viral infection so was lucky to complete the round. Maybe the old saying "beware of the injured golfer" holds here, too," Kapur said.
"The conditions in the morning were a bit better for scoring and I managed to take advantage of it. Despite an early bogey I managed to fight back, which was encouraging. I found my rhythm mid way through the round and played the last 12/13 holes really well."
On the weekend, he said, "I just hope to get healthy and feel fit over the weekend."
The 34-year-old Indian, who is hoping to work his way to getting a full card on the European Tour once again, had six birdies against two bogeys in his card of four-under 68.
Kapur was way down in 102nd place after his first round 74 and needed a strong rally in the second and he came up with it. He birdied third and fifth but gave back a shot on par-4 sixth. A birdie on par-5 ninth meant he turned in two-under. On the back nine of the Bro Hoff Slott Golf Club, Kapur dropped a shot on 11th to come down to one-under for the day one-over for the tournament. At that stage he was still in the danger zone of missing the cut.
Kapur fought back with birdies on par-5 12th, par-3 16th and par-5 18th to finish at 68 and move to Tied-34th, an upward move of more than 65 places. But many of the golfers were yet to finish their second round.
The Nordea Masters is part of The Open Qualifying Series, with the leading player, not otherwise exempt, who finishes in the top five and ties this week qualifying for The 2016 Open Championship.
Matthew Fitzpatrick signaled his fine form with a stunning round of seven-under 65 that gave him a 36-hole total of 11-under 133 and a one-shot lead over Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts (70-66) and two shot advantage over Frenchman Thomas Linard (69-68).
