Veer Ahlawat registered a tied-11th finish in Indonesia
The Asian Tour resumed action after several weeks and with PGTI also being out of action for a couple of months, only 5 out of 14 Indian players made the cut, showing a lack of being tournament ready at the US$ 500,000 Mandiri Indonesia Open played at the famous old course – Pondok Indah in Jakarta.
Veer Ahlawat of Gurgaon, was the best among the Indians, finishing tied 11th with Kolkata’s Viraj Madappa, an Asian Tour winner in 2018, at 19th alongside another former Asian Tour winner, Rashid Khan of Delhi who closed with a remarkable 64.
Bangalore’s Chikkarangappa was at 33rd, followed by Asian Tour rookie & left hander from Delhi Kartik Sharma at 40th.
Defending champion Gaganjeet Bhullar, who already has 3 Indonesia Open titles to his name, was among those missing the cut.
Players who missed the cut :
Rahil Gangjee -74-69(-1)
S.S.P. Chawrasia – 72-73(+1)
Khalin Joshi – 73-72(+1)
Gaganjeet Bhullar – 74-72(+2)
Akshay Sharma – 73-73 (+2)
Aman Raj – 74-72 (+2)
Ajeetesh Sandhu – 75-72 (+3)
Karandeep Kochhar – 75-75 (+6)
Honey Baisoya – 76-75 (+7)
The next event on the Asian tour will be the US$ 2mn International Series in England from Aug. 17-20, one of the 10 events which make up the Asian Tour’s Saudi PIF funded International Series, each with purses of US$1.5 mn or above. The International Series England is expected to see a number of star players from the LIV Tour, also funded by the Saudi PIF, in action, including
With SSP Chawrasia and Khalin Joshi joining India’s in form duo of Anirban Lahiri and Shubhankar Sharma on the Guangzhou Asian Games Team this September, the pair need as much match practice as possible and we hope the two find form soon.
The other Indian pro players also need to make strides as the Asian Tour enters a busy 2nd half of the year since not one is ranked in the Asian Tour’s top 20 – an unprecedented situation for Indian golf since the Asian Tour entered its modern phase in 1995.
Credits:-
Photo – Asian Tour