Sandhu, Madappa only Indians to make cut in NZ Open; Joohyung leads

India's Ajeetesh Sandhu and Viraj Madappa played solid rounds of 68 each on different courses to make the halfway cut at the New Zealand Open golf tournament here on Friday.

Sandhu and Madappa were the only two out of six Indians to get into weekend rounds.

While Sandhu shot bogey free four-under 68 at the Hillbrook course to get to a three-under total for a tied-25th spot, Madappa was three-under 68 at Millbrook with four birdies in last eight holes to reach two-under and was tied-35.

Sandhu shot one-over 72 on Millbrook in the first round, while Madappa shot one-over 73 at Hillbrook on the first day.

The other Indians Shiv Kapur (71-74), Khalin Joshi (71-79), Aman Raj (74-72) and Chiragh Kumar (74-74) missed the cut, which fell at even-par.

Sandhu, who had two runner-up finishes on Asian Tour last week, made two birdies on either side of Hillbrook course, but must be ruing the fact that he birdied just one of the four Par-5s.

Madappa, who has finished no better than T-33 in his last