Gaganjeet Bhullar one shot behind leader in Korea
Seoul, May 2: Gaganjeet Bhullar, who lost a four-way play-off at this very tournament in 2018, sits one shot behind the group of five players who shared the lead at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open. For a brief period, Bhullar was right on top at six-under, but back-to-back bogeys on the 16th and the 17th pulled him back.
Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond has taken a share of the clubhouse lead after a second-round three-under-par 68 to sit on five under along with Doyeon Hwang (66), Wooyoung Cho (70), and first-round leader Heemin Chang (71), all from Korea. Another Korean Hyunghoon Lee was also 5-under but he had seven more holes to play.
Bhullar is one shot back, in tied sixth place with Richard T Lee, who has two more holes to play.
Bhullar charged up the leaderboard with three birdies in-a-row from the 12th before slipping up over the closing stages.
“I made three birdies in a row, and then I actually misjudged two of the chips on two out of the last three holes,” said the 37-year-old.
“On the 16th I was right there, I thought it’s going to be a flat chip, 54 degrees bump and run, I just misjudged that. And on the 17th I just misread the line. But I think other than that it was a decent round of golf.”
He was beaten by Korean Sanghyun Park in extra time here seven years ago, in a play-off that also featured Koreans Hwang Jung-gon and Chang Yi-keun.
It was a rare case of one getting away for the Indian, who is an 11-time winner on the Asian Tour – the most by any Indian.
He added: “A lot of the local Korean players have played this golf course more than I’ve played here. But yeah, I mean, one thing it definitely shows is that when you’re playing well on a golf course where you have played well in the past, it definitely adds to your subconscious mind. And I think at times it does give you a benefit.”
It has been 21 years since an overseas player last won the GS Caltex Maekyung Open.
Thailand’s Sarit Suwannarut (69) and Scott Vincent (72) from Zimbabwe are next best placed in the clubhouse on three under, along with joint-first round leader Seonghyeon An, the 15-year-old Korean amateur, who carded a 73.
Three other players at 3-under were yet to complete their second round.
Sixty-one players were unable to complete their second round today.
The backlog was caused by poor weather yesterday, which caused a significant delay of nearly four hours and meant 72 players had to complete their first rounds this morning.
Bhullar 1-under with four holes to play in Korea on a weather-affected day
Seoul, May 1: Gaganjeet Bhullar was among the 72 players, who had yet to complete their first round at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open. Bhullar was 1-under through 14 holes after starting from the back nine.
He finished the round with 1-under 70 and was T-28 when play resumed on Friday morning.
The 11-time winner on the Asian Tour, Bhullar had 13 pars before he birdied the Par-5 fourth hole. He had four holes to play and was four shots behind the leader, the 15-year-old amateur star Seonghyeon An.
An was the surprise early leader at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open, here at Namseoul Country Club in Seoul, Korea as he was 5-under with six birdies against one bogey for a five-under-par 66 card on a weather effected day. Lightning and rain caused significant delays. Seventy two players were unable to complete their rounds and will return early tomorrow morning.
Jaewoong Eom from Korea is in outright second place after a 67. His compatriots Baekjun Kim, Donghwan Lee, Jaeho Kim, and Yeonggyu Park are next best placed with 68s – in what is the Asian Tour’s first visit of the year to Korea.
An was in the second group out, at 6.41am, on tee 10 and was in the lead on four under after 11 holes before a nearly four-hour delay caused by lightning brought the event to a standstill. Play was stopped at 9.36am and resumed at 1.30pm.
An has been making waves over the past few years. In 2022 he became the youngest player to make the cut on the Korean PGA Tour, when he was 13 years old and four months at the Bizplay-Electronic times Open.
And last year he made history by becoming the first Korean to win The R&A Junior Open – a title won by American Patrick Reed in 2006. He was also fifth in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship last season.
Richard T. Lee from Canada, a winner last week on the Korean PGA, is in a group of players who fired a 69.
