Shanghai, October 26: Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat is still not out of the running for the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions despite returning with a second round one-under-par 71 at the Sheshan International Golf Club on Friday.

The Thai, who has already enjoyed two top-five finishes in his previous two WGC events in Mexico and the United States this year, will head into the weekend rounds in tied-seventh place, six shots back of American Tony Finau.

Finau signed for a 67 to take over the lead from compatriot Patrick Reed, who slipped to a share of second place with Englishmen Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood after the trio signed for matching two-day totals of eight-under-par 136 at the US$10 million event.

While conceding he has yet to play to his true potential this week, Kiradech is pleased he is still in contention for his first WGC win and there is a marked improvement in his short game.

Finau is playing at the WGC-HSBC Champions for the second time and showed his dominance on the second day of the tournament when he raced out in 32.

Finau suffered an unfortunate bounce off a sprinkler-head on 11 which saw his ball land over the back of the green and he would eventually go on to card a double-bogey there.

The American bogeyed 13 but came storming back with three more birdies on 14, 16 and 18 to take a three-shot advantage into the weekend.

Did you know?

• Kiradech Aphibarnrat hit 7/14 fairways and 9/18 greens today.
• The Thai is playing in his fourth WGC-HSBC Champions. His previous results include T55 (2013), T30 (2015), T24 (2017).
• He is the first player from Thailand to gain full-time membership on the PGA TOUR.
• Tony Finau is playing in the fifth World Golf Championships event of his career and he has never finished worse than T27 at a WGC.
• Finau finished T11 at last year’s WGC-HSBC Champions in his only previous start at the event.
• Patrick Reed is vying for his second victory at a World Golf Championships event having won the 2014 World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship.
• Reed still holds the distinction of being the youngest player ever to win a World Golf Championships event with his victory at the 2014 World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship at age 23 years, 7 months, 4 days.
• Justin Rose is trying to become the only player other than Tiger Woods to defend a World Golf Championships title. Woods has done it on seven occasions.

Players’ Quotes

Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) Second round 71 (-1) Total 139 (-9)

It’s not a bad spot to be here. It’s really tough conditions with the wind all around, so strong. Makes the golf course completely different from the first round and was more difficult. But at least I got my putting back. I rolled the ball quite well. My short game around the green was great. I just didn’t keep the driver quite as good as I used to. I think I only hit four or five fairways all day, but need to hit more greens, as well. When the winds pick up, you need to hit more from the fairways and give yourself more opportunity to putt. This week, I don’t feel I have my A Game yet. I don’t totally have it back, but much better than what I had the last few weeks.

Tony Finau (Usa) Second round 67 (-5) Total 133 (-11)

I played nicely. Was happy with the way I finished. I was pleased to make a few birdies coming down the stretch. One thing I’ve learned in this game, you take the good with the bad and keep moving forward. I knew I was playing well still and still at the top of the leaderboard. Just keep plugging along and try to get that back and I was able to do that. I feel like I’m always pretty enthusiastic whenever I play. It serves me well and it definitely has this week. I think I just stay in attack mode. I think there’s guys, a lot of great players here that are looking to chase me down. I’ve got to stay in attack mode, continue to make birdies and if I limit the mistakes, I think it will be a good weekend.

Patrick Reed (Usa) Second round 72 (Even), Total 136 (-8)

Really it was a grind today. It was one of those days that you easily could have shot 76 or 77 with playing out of the rough all day and hitting three balls in the water, and you know, being able to salvage even par and only being three back starting the weekend, I’m happy with where I’m at. All I need to do is tighten it up a little bit and we should be right there and ready to go. I think the biggest difference between today and yesterday was yesterday I felt like I was in complete control of the golf ball. I felt like my timing was right where it needed to be, and today it felt like it was a hair off. Therefore, the ball wasn’t coming out of the window I was looking at, so it was tough to judge how far it was going to go. Today it seemed like the wind wasn’t staying in just one direction like it was yesterday. Today it just seemed to kind of bounce between west, northwest, all the way up to west. With it kind of bouncing around, you just had to hope you caught the right gust or hit the right shot, but you know, it was a grind out there.

Justin Rose (Eng) Second round 67 (-5), Total 136 (-8)

I used the greens book most of the time and there’s no greens maps here, so obviously I’m reading them with my eyes, which is how you should read putts, I know. I feel comfortable reading putts I guess this week. It was the opposite wind today. Although it was tough, certain holes played much harder than yesterday and certain holes played easier. The par 5s played easier, certainly No. 8 and No. 2 played easier than they did, but yeah, just found my moments to make birdies. I kept it mentally obviously sharp and I felt like towards the end of the round I was trying to whip myself and keep driving forward and making good decisions and good swings.

Leading scores after round 2 of the WGC – HSBC Champions being played at the par 72, 7261 Yards Sheshan International Golf Club course (am – denotes amateur):

133 – Tony FINAU (USA) 66-67.

136 – Patrick REED (USA) 64-72, Justin ROSE (ENG) 69-67, Tommy FLEETWOOD (ENG) 68-68.

137 – Xander SCHAUFFELE (USA) 66-71.

138 – Patrick CANTLAY (USA) 70-68.

139 – Kyle STANLEY (USA) 70-69, Kiradech APHIBARNRAT (THA) 68-71, Keegan BRADLEY (USA) 69-70, Emiliano GRILLO (ARG) 70-69, Thomas PIETERS (BEL) 75-64, Pat PEREZ (USA) 70-69.

140 – Ryan FOX (NZL) 70-70, Billy HORSCHEL (USA) 68-72, Ian POULTER (ENG) 69-71.

141 – Rafa CABRERA BELLO (ESP) 68-73, Andrew PUTNAM (USA) 70-71, Paul CASEY (ENG) 73-68, Alexander LEVY (FRA) 71-70, Jason DAY (AUS) 71-70.

142 – Tyrrell HATTON (ENG) 72-70, Adam SCOTT (AUS) 69-73, Hideki MATSUYAMA (JPN) 72-70, Adam HADWIN (CAN) 74-68.

143 – Andy SULLIVAN (ENG) 72-71, Chez REAVIE (USA) 70-73, Branden GRACE (RSA) 72-71, Andrea PAVAN (ITA) 72-71, George COETZEE (RSA) 69-74, Alex NOREN (SWE) 74-69.

144 – Thorbjorn OLESEN (DEN) 75-69, Gaganjeet BHULLAR (IND) 72-72, C.T. PAN (TPE) 68-76, Matt WALLACE (ENG) 69-75.