Hua Hin, Thailand, Feb 17: Two former Asian Tour winners, Khalin Joshi and Himmat Rai are among the 18 Indian players who will figure in the 2020 Asian Tour Qualifying School – Final Stage at the Lake View Resort and Golf Club this week.
The five-round 90-hole affair will also see young Aadil Bedi, who played on the Asian Tour in 2019, 51-year-old veteran Amandeep Singh Johl, who played on the Asian Tour for many years.
Promising Kartik Sharma, who turned pro recently, and represented the International Team at Junior Presidents Cup in Australia last year, in-form Veer Ahlawat, who in his last eight starts ove three months, has won once, been runner-up once and figured in Top-10 three other events and Sunit Chowrasia, nephew of foursix-time winner on Asian Tour, SSP Chawrasia, are among the Indian players in Hua Hin.
The Indian players in the field of 244 players are Ankur Chadha, Harsheet Singh Sethie (A), Kartik Sharma, Aadil Bedi, Himmat Rai, Karan Pratap Singh, Honey Baisoya, Manu Gandas, Veer Ahlawat, Sunit Chowrasia, Abhinav Lohan, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu, Yashas Chandra, M Dharma, Priyanshu Singh, Khalin Joshi, Gaurav Pratap Singh and Amandeep Singh Johl.
The Final Stage will be played over two courses, Course A&B, a Par 71 layout, which measures 6,897 yards and Course C&D, the 7,218 yard layout which has a Par of 71.
All players will play two rounds at each of the two courses with the fifth and final round at Lake View Resort and Golf Club (A/B).
The 245 players are from 30 countries with South Korea and Thailand having 40 players each. There are 32 Americans and the next highest figure is from India at 18.
Some well-known past Asian Tour winners include Rikard Karlberg and Malcolm Kokocinski of Sweden and Joshi from India. There are 12 former Asian Tour champions.
The highest-ranked player on OWGR is Japan’s Rikuya Hoshino at 116.
The youngest player in the field is Chen Ting-yu (a) (Tpe at 18 years old, while the oldest is 52-year-old Zaw Moe of Myanmar.
The 2020 Asian Tour Qualifying School, comprises of two stages – First Stage and Final stage, and it has attracted a total of 459 entries from 37 countries across the globe.
The First Stage of the 2020 Asian Tour Qualifying School is made up of Section A and Section B. Section A, which was held earlier at the Lake View Resort and Golf Club from January 8 to 11, saw a total of 15 players progressed to this week’s Final Stage. Section B took place on the same venue last week with 72 players making it through to the Final Stage from courses A&B (35) and C&D (37).
Players who passed the test in the First Stage will join 158 other players, who are already exempt, in the Final Stage, which is scheduled to be played over 90 holes this week. All 245 players will play the first two rounds. After 36 holes, the field will be cut to the leading 140 players and ties who will then play 2 further rounds. After 72 holes, the field will be cut again to the leading 70 players and ties, who will then play the fifth and final round. At the conclusion of 90 holes, the leading 35 players and ties will be ranked accordingly for the 2020 season.
Players who compete in the 2020 Qualifying School will also be eligible to play on the Asian Development Tour (ADT), which was launched in 2010 as a gateway to the premier Asian Tour.
