India stay second in men’s team event at Jakarta Asian Games

India held on to second place in the men’s team event of the Jakarta Asian Games golf tournament, but Aadil Bedi slipped to third in the individual competition at the Podok Indah Golf Course on Friday.

The Indians trailed Japan (414) by six shots and were three clear of South Korea, who aggregated 423 after the second day of the Games competition thanks largely to a bogey-free round of 68 by Kshitij Naveed Kaul (see leaderboard here).

In the individual standings, Bedi lost his overnight second place and dropped to third, three shots behind leader Keita Nakajima of Japan, who had a second successive round of four under par 68 and two behind Hoyoung Choi of South Korea (69, 68).

Rayhan Thomas was in shared fifth place alongside two others.

Bedi, who had gone three under par on the opening day had a 70 on the second that included five birdies against three dropped shots on the 7,206-yard Pondok Indah layout. He picked up shots on three of the four par-3s, and one each on a par-4 and par-5 18^th hole.

India’s women though dropped through the Asian Games field and are now ninth, 17 shots behind leaders China. Sifat Sagoo was the best placed at tied 20^th with a three-over aggregate.

Comeback win for Tvesa

In Hyderabad, Tvesa Malik stormed back from a four-shot deficit to tie Amandeep Drall and then beat her in a play-off to win the 12^th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour on Friday.

Tvesa, who had won the fourth leg and then a series of second place finishes, began the final round three shots behind form player Amandeep. Grouped together, Tvesa kept the pressure on the leader, who cracked on the back nine despite a four-shot lead.

Three bogeys from Amandeep and steady pay by Tvesa cut the gap till they ended the scheduled 54 holes on four-over 220s each. She then closed out the tournament on the third playoff hole.

The win ensured Tvesa stayed on top of the Hero Order of Merit with Amandeep moving up to second. Tvesa also became the first to cross the million-rupee mark for the season.

Lahiri makes modest start

At the Northern Trust, first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs in New Jersey on Thursday, Anirban Lahiri hit four birdies but dropped as many shots to end on level par and in a tie for 60^th place alongside Tiger Woods and 18 others including Bubba Watson, Jason Day and Francesco Molinari.

Four players, Sean O’Hair, Kevin Tway, Jamie Lovemark and Vaughn Taylor were tied for the lead at 5-under 66 (see leaderboard here).

Thirteen players were bunched in fifth place including world no. 1 Dustin Johnson, US Open and PGA champion Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama and Tommy Fleetwood on 67 each.

Johnson had seven birdies against a triple bogey, while Koepka had four birdies and an eagle for his 67. Defending FedExCup champion Justin Thomas had four birdies in his round of 69.