Yuvraj Singh Sandhu. FilePic: PGTI
Hua Hin, Thailand, Jan 19: Yuvraj Sandhu, winner of five events on the Indian domestic PGTI Tour in 2022, and left-handed Kartik Sharma were the best placed Indians at tied 32nd place with both shooting rounds of 69-69 on the first two days of the Final Stage of the Asian Tour’s Qualifying School.
After rounds three and four the top-70 and ties will play Sunday’s pivotal final round.
Sandhu, who had a superb 2022 at home, is now trying to find a place on one of the international Tour. Apart from the Asian Tour Q-School, he will also have a shot at the DP World Tour Q-School’s final stage later in the year.
Kartik, who has been playing well on the domestic PGTI Tour, has a best finish of tied-fifth at the Blue Canyon Classic on the Asian Development Tour last year. In the first round he had an eagle, three birdies and three bogeys, while in the second he had four birdies against two bogeys.
Gaurav Pratap Singh (70-69) is tied 47th and Kshitij Naved Kaul (67-74) was tied-80th. Khalin Joshi (72-70), a one-time winner on the Asian Tour, Aman Raj (73-69) and Varun Parikh (67-75) were all tied 97th. Angad Cheema (71-72) was tied 120th and Saptak Talwar (74-70) was tied 134th.
Missing out the first cut after two rounds were Om Prakash Chouhan (71-74), Udayan Mane (74-73), Yashas Chandra (73-76) and Himmat Rai (74-75), another former Asian Tour winner, were further down.
Former golf wonderkid Ye Wocheng added a second-round six-under-par 65 to his opening day 64 to take the lead today after day two.
The Chinese golfer leads on 13 under par at Lake View Resort and Golf Club, in Hua Hin, Thailand, where two layouts are being used to accommodate the 234-starting field, by three shots from American Michael Maguire, who came in with a 66.
Germany’s Dominic Foos (64), Australians Aaron Wilkin (65) and John Lyras (69), and Korean Hanmil Jung (66) are joint third on eight under.
One stroke further back are New Zealand’s Denzel leremia (66), Englishman Ben Jones (67), Korea’s Jaeil Song (68), South African M Viljoen (70) and Benjamin Follett-Smith (71) from Zimbabwe – who won the 2020 Qualifying School, also played here at Lake View.
Ten years ago, a 12-year-old Ye created history by becoming the youngest male to compete in a European Tour event when he played in the Volvo China Open and today he showed he has lost none of that early promise.
Competitors are chasing 35 Tour cards this week for the new season.
Notable casualties are Australians Brett Rumford and Sam Brazel, Swede Rikaard Karlberg, Spaniard Alvaro Quiros, Malaysian Danny Chia and Indonesia’s Rory Hie.
