Girraj Singh Khadka tops Pre Quali III, 27 enter Final Stage

By Rahul Banerji

Girraj Singh Khadka of Jaipur shot a second round 1-under 71 to total level-par 144 for top honours at Pre Qualifying III of the Tata Steel PGTI Qualifying School 2022 in Ahmedabad on Saturday.

Pune’s Pravin Pathare (70-75) and Gurgaon-based amateur Daksh Shokeen (71-74) finished tied second at one-over 145 at the Kalhaar Blues & Greens Golf Club.

From a field of 96 in Pre Qualifying III, the top 27 players went through to the Final Qualifying Stage as the cut was declared at 11-over 155, the PGTI said.

Twenty-seven-year-old Khadka, overnight tied eighth and three off the lead sank two long birdie putts on the third and fifth holes before dropping a double-bogey on the seventh.

Controlled play

Khadka, a two-time winner on the amateur circuit before he turned pro in 2020, added three more birdies between 10 and 14 with controlled wedge play.

The son of a Rambagh Golf Club employee, Khadka dropped shots on 15 and 18 but still managed to finish on top of the pack at the end of the 36-hole event.

“My putting was the best aspect of my game over the last two days,´ Girraj said later,.

“I made some crucial long putts in both rounds. Finishing with the best score in Pre Q III gives me tremendous confidence going into the Final Stage.

“I used the one-month delay in the Qualifying School to my advantage as it gave me more time to prepare for this week.”

The Final Qualifying Stage will now be held from February 15 to 18 with the season-opening Gujarat Open shortly thereafter.

The qualifiers

Girrraj Singh Khadka, Daksh Shokeen (A), Pravin J. Pathare, Rajesh Kumar, Arjun Puri (A), Rajesh Kumar Rawat, Md Somrat Sirdar, Tushar Pannu (A), Sukra Bahadur Rai, Vijitha Bandara, Chandarjeet Yadav, Abhimanyu Dhara (A), Md Muaj, Amo; G. Waghmare.

Anish Nangia (A), Sumaer Singh Dhalla (A), Anmol Handa, Vishav Pratap Singh Gill, Indrajit Bhalotia, Kabir Singh Dhaliwal (A), Rajiv Niranjan Datar, Bikramjit Singh Sandhu, Rishi Kumar, Viren Thapar, Bishwam Ghosh, Mahesh Yadav and Yuvraj Dhara,

Also read: Pravin Pathare holds clubhouse lead on day one of Pre Qualifying III