Sentosa, Singapore, January 17: Rashid Khan continued his fine run as he carded a superb five-under 66 to add to his 70 from the first round, which was completed on Friday morning at the SMBC Singapore Open on Friday. Rashid, who has five Top-10 finishes in last eight starts on Asian Tour since September 2019, is now Tied-seventh.
Rashid is six-under 136 and six shots behind the leader and defending
champion Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand who once again moved into contention with six-under-par 65 to lead the field at thee halfway stage.
Four other Indians made the cut and they were Rahil Gangjee (70-71) in Tied-32ndplace, while SSP Chawrasia (72-71) finished birdie-birdie to squeeze inside the cut line with Shiv Kapur (72-71) and Khalin Joshi (70-73) in Tied-52ndplace.
Among the eight Indians to miss out the cut Aman Raj (70-74), Jyoti Randhawa (74-70) and Ajeetesh Sandhu (69-75) missed by one shot. Udayan Mane (72-74), Viraj Madappa (76-73), S Chikkarangappa (74-76), Chiragh Kumar (68-83) and Jeev Milkha Singh (79-76) were others heading back early. Chiragh had a monstrous 13 on Par-3 eighth.
Rashid, the only Indian in Top-200 of the world, had six birdies against one solitary bogey. He said, “This is by far one of my best rounds on this golf course. I’ve played here many times but haven’t been able to score well. Maybe it was because of my iron shots here in the past but now, I’m very confident of hitting it onto the greens. I also enjoy holing those long birdie putts.”
He added, ”I’m really enjoying myself here and giving myself chances this week. I got a good result in Hong Kong last week and that gave me lots of confidence, especially with my putting on the greens.”
Gangjee had two bogeys in last five holes but made the cut comfortably at one-under for two rounds. Chawrasia was staring at a missed cut as he was three-over after 16 holes, but a birdie-birdie finish saw him get in to get a chance to improve over the weekend.
Jazz, who started his round two shots off the pace, did not get off to the best of starts as he bogeyed the second hole. But he quickly found his rhythm with three birdies on holes four, eight and nine.
The 2019 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion then raced towards the summit with another four birdies in his back nine for a two-day total of 10-under-par 132.
Philippines’ Miguel Tabuena also returned 65 to share second place with Korean teen sensation Joohyung Kim, who signed for a 66 at the US$1 million event, which is sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour Organisation (JGTO).
American Matt Kuchar and former world number one Justin Rose of England posted a 68 and 66 respectively to share fourth place.
