Strong Indian presence in Asian Tour Q-School at Hua Hin

By Rahul Banerji

Former Asian Tour winner Chiragh Kumar, Abhijit Chadha and youngsters Aadil Bedi and Karandeep Kochhar were the best of the 17 Indians at the Asian Tour Qualifying School Final Stage in Hua Hin on Thursday.

In all, 17 are in the fray among the 242 players hunting 35 cards this week at the two courses at Lakeview Resorts and Golf Club in Thailand.

Chiragh had a six-under 65 for tied eighth, just one shot behind the leaders, who included 19-year-old Thai-Japanese Kosuke Hamamoto, compatriots Kwanchai Tannin and Daisuke Yasumoto, China’s Xiao Bowen, Sweden’s Christoffer Baumann, and Koreans Taewoo Kim and Jaewoong Eom.

The next best Indian behind Churagh was 2010 Asian Games team silver medallist Chadha (66) in T12, while Bedi, who played at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, and Kochhar were four-under 67 and T20.

In the running

Amardip Malik and Arjun Prasad (68) were T31, while Aman Raj, Gaurav Pratap Singh and Veer Ahlawat (69) were T50. Sunit Chawrasia, nephew of S.S.P. Chawrasia was one-under 70, alongside Samarth Dwivedi, to be T67.

Shankar Das and the seasoned Amandeep Singh Johl had two-over 73s to be T-162, Divyanshu Bajaj (74) was T188, Tapy Ghai, Manu Gandas and Kshitij Naveed Kaul shot 75s to be T203.

The first cut falls after round two with the top 140 and ties making the third round. A second cut winnows the field to 70 for the final 18 holes after which the top 35 and ties will be ranked for the 2019 season.

Madan, Dagar earn LET starts

Meanwhile,Astha Madan finished seventh and Diksha Dagar tied 21^st in the final stage of the Ladies European Tour Qualifying School in Morocco to earn a fair number of starts in 2019.

Madan, 22, who graduated from Sacramento State University and turned pro only in July began the week with a seven-under 65 to lead the first round. She ended the five-round qualifiers with a round of 66 to finish at 10-under 350 at the Amelkis Golf Club.

Dagar, a southpaw, who has a hearing impairment, had a final round of five-under 67, her best of the week to finish on three-under 357.

Decent finish

By finishing between sixth and 25^th places, the two earned Category 8 membership which will give them a good number of starts on the Tour in 2019.

Among other the Indians, Tvesa Malik was two-over 362 to be T45, Vani Kapoor was T53 and Sharmila Nicollet T62. They finished in in Category 9b and as such will get a few starts.

Ridhima Dilawari and Saaniya Sharma, who made the final stage, failed to make the cut and finished T-88^th and T-105^th.

Also read: Record seven Indians reach final stage of LET Q-School