Jackson, Miss, Oct 7 (IANS): Akshay Bhatia dropped three bogeys late in his second round and slipped down the leader board with a 72 after his first round 66 at the Sanderson Farms Championship. From T-4 he dropped to T-41 but made the cut.

Among other Asian stars, Chinese duo Carl Yuan and Marty Zecheng Dou fired matching 6-under 66s to move into title contention at the Sanderson Farms Championship and also maintained their fight for PGA TOUR survival.

Ben Griffin carded a stellar 63 to lead on 14-under with rounds of 67-63 and is 14-under and two ahead of four players, including Yuan (66-66), Luke List (66-66), Harrison Endycott (67-65) and Henrik Norlander (65-67), who are all at 12-under.

The 26-year-old Yuan, featuring in his rookie season on the PGA TOUR, reaped the rewards of adjusting the set-up of his driver as he hit 12 of 14 fairways at The Country Club in Jackson, Mississippi which yielded seven birdies against a lone bogey. He is two behind leader Griffin.

Dou also made seven birdies, thanks largely to some fine ball-strikingto end the day on 11-under in a share of sixth place.

CT Pan of Chinese Taipei shot a 69 for T27 heading into the weekend where he is also battling to keep his TOUR card.

Pan entered the second of seven events in the reimagined FedExCup Fall ranked 151st after missing 15 cuts in the Regular Season and posting three top-25s. The top 125 will keep their PGA TOUR cards for 2024.

Dou, 26, currently sits on the bubble in 125th position in his fight for TOUR survival.

The cut fell at 5-under 139 and 78 professionals from a field of 144 professionals made the cut.