Tremendous turnaround

Intrepid Atwal manages to make cut at Ford Championship

MIAMI (Ticker) -- If anyone deserved to make the cut at the Ford Championship at Doral on Friday, it was Arjun Atwal.

Arwal was 7-over-par after nine holes Thursday, and few would have blamed him if he'd mailed it in for the next 27 holes.

Instead, the PGA Tour rookie knuckled down, tamed the strong winds and played the next 24 holes in 8-under, making the cut with nothing to spare at 1-over 145, despite two late bogeys Friday at Doral's Blue Monster on Friday.

"Yesterday, I didn't let it get to me," said Atwal, the first Indian to play on the PGA Tour. "I've shot enough bad rounds and I know everyone is going to make bogeys in tough conditions. When you want to throw in the towel, you've got to remember that."

But the 30-year-old admitted that had he been on another tour, he might not have persisted so diligently. Having worked so hard for so long to get here, he wasn't going to dog it.

"You've got to remember that this is what you play for all your life, and being on the big show, you've got to keep trying," Atwal said. "This is my first time playing the course and even if I don't make the cut, I want to play as good as I can for next year."

For the record, Atwal made a triple-bogey at the par-4 18th, his ninth hole, on Thursday to slump to 7-over. He was 2-under for his final nine holes, then played the first 15 on Friday in 6-under. A sloppy three-putt at the 16th hole stemmed his momentum and he also bogeyed the 17th before parring the last to shoot 68 and qualify for the final two rounds.

Ranked 234th in the world, Atwal was born and raised in India but has spent a lot of his life in the United States. He attended Nassau Community College on New York's Long Island and recently moved to Orlando, Florida after securing his tour card at qualifying school last year.

Atwal has a fine pedigree, including two victories on the European Tour. He topped last year's Asian Tour money list, despite playing just seven tournaments, and is the only player with more than $1 million in career earnings on that tour, where he spent eight years.

Atwal is a member of storied Royal Calcutta, which opened in 1829 and is the oldest golf club outside Great Britain. The club is an oasis in one of the poorest cities in Asia but is not immune to outside influences.

There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, that one year during the Indian Open, an Australian golfer hit into a water hazard. When he arrived to look for his ball, he was greeted by the sight of a body floating in the water.

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