Raleigh, NC, June 6: India’s 48-year-old Arjun Atwal played a marathon 30 holes on Saturday at the Rex Hospital Open on the Korn Ferry Tour in the US to make up for a backlog as he first made the cut with a second round of 68 on top of his first round 66. He added a 74 in the third round.
Beginning his third round soon after playing his 12 holes from second round, Atwal, a former winner on the Korn Ferry Tour – which was then called Nationwide – held up fine for the first 10 holes with two birdies against two bogeys in the third round. Then he dropped three shots in last eight holes on 11th, 17th and 18th as tiredness seemed to catch up.
After 66-68 in the first two rounds, he was T-11, but by the end of the third round he had dropped to. T-54. Atwal said, “It was tiring for sure,” and then added, “These wheels need re-charging.”
This is Atwal’s first event on any Tour since his start at Corales Puntacana on the PGA Tour at the end of March.
The field managed to complete the third round just before darkness and sharing the lead were German Stephan Jaeger (66-67-63), American. Andrew Novak (61-71-64), and Chilean Mito Pereira (62-67-67) at 17-under each. Each one is looking for a win that will secure the PGA card for them.
Jaeger, who has six Korn Ferry wins, already has two wins this season, can secure his PGA card with a win this week.
Novak, currently No. 19 in the Korn Ferry Tour points standings, needs a win, while Pereira, ranked No. 12 in the points standings, could settle for a three-way T3 finish and still cross the 1,700-point threshold and lock up a PGA TOUR card.
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Good start for Atwal on Korn Ferry Tour
