Tomarata (New Zealand), Oct 30 (PTI) The Indian trio of Anshul Mishra, Arkesh Bhatia and Ribhav Verma missed the cut

Tomarata (New Zealand), Oct 30 (PTI) The Indian trio of Anshul Mishra, Arkesh Bhatia and Ribhav Verma missed the cut

Tomarata (New Zealand), Oct 30 (PTI) The Indian trio of Anshul Mishra, Arkesh Bhatia and Ribhav Verma missed the cut

Tomarata (New Zealand), Oct 30 (PTI) The Indian trio of Anshul Mishra, Arkesh Bhatia and Ribhav Verma missed the cut by a big margin at the Asia-Pacific Amateur golf tournament here on Friday.

     Mishra carded 82 and 80 over two rounds while Bhatia (85-81) and Verma (79-88) also failed to make the cut.

     Sixty-two players made the 36-hole cut at 13-over-par 155.

     Defending champion Fifa Laopakdee of Thailand carded a one-over 72 in windy conditions to maintain his lead at the halfway stage at Te Arai Links’ South Course.

     The 21-year-old, who posted an eight-under 63 on Thursday, leads New Zealander Cooper Moore by two strokes through 36 holes in his title defence.

     “As you can see it's a little windy,” said Laopakdee.

     “Overall, it was a grind out there for me. Had a great front nine, shot two under par, then back nine, just didn't make any putts.

     "Got two 3-putts and then coming down the stretch had a great chance of birdies but I just missed all of them. But if you ask me like just all week, I would take seven under for the first two rounds, I would take it, definitely, and I think I'm in good position for the weekend."

     Laopakdee faltered with a bogey on his first hole, the par-4 10th, but recovered with birdies at Nos. 12, 13 and 17 to solidify his lead.

     As the wind picked up later in the morning, Laopakdee sandwiched a birdie at the third hole with bogeys at Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5 to fall back to seven under overall.

    Laopakdee, the No. 31 player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR), won the 2025 Asia-Pacific Amateur in Dubai on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff.

     He made his debut in the Masters and The Open earlier this year.

    His playing partner Swanwick, the No. 24 player in WAGR, carded the low round of the day at four-under 67. The New Zealander rose from T-25 after the first round to fourth and four shots back of Laopakdee.

    Swanwick is joined near the top of the leaderboard by two other Kiwis -- Moore (second/five under) and Ryan Xie (third/four under).

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)