Late double bogey pushes Sandhu to second spot
TAMSUI, CHINESE TAIPEI: Indian golfer Ajeetesh Sandhu had to be satisfied with a tied-second place after he blew his chances with a late double bogey in the final round of the Mercuries Taiwan Masters here on Sunday. Thailand’s Suradit Yongcharoenchai, who began the day one shot behind the leaders—Ajeetesh Sandhu of India and Philippines’ Miguel Tabuena—held his nerve in a tight finish with an even par back nine to card 70 and held out for his career’s biggest prize cheque.
For Suradit, it was a breakthrough on the Asian Tour where he made his debut as a 17-year-old in 2015. Suradit carded 70, while Sandhu and Tabuena shot 72 each. Adilson Da Silva fired 68 to jump to tiedsecond. He was one shot clear of Sandhu, Tabuena and Adilson Da Silva (68).
Among others, Rashid Khan shot the best round on Sunday with a 67 and jumped up to Tiedfifth, while Viraj Madappa was unable to follow up on his 65 from Saturday and ballooned to 76 to lie Tied-ninth as three Indians figured in Top-10.
Khalin Joshi (72) was Tied19th, S Chikkarangappa (78) fell to Tied-37th and Chiragh Kumar (73) was Tied-40th.
Sandhu said, “It was a tough day so it was really nice to end it with that birdie on 18. I left a few shots out there and that really cost me the tournament.
“I made two wrong decisions on 16 and that led to a double bogey and you cannot afford to do that especially when you’re trying to close out the tournament. But I’m happy with how I played and where my game is heading and I can only look forward to the rest of season.”
Sandhu did not get his putts to fall and turned in even par with one birdie and one bogey and then he added a second birdie on 13th to get to 10-under. But a double on 16th ended his hopes and the best he could get was tied-second following a 18th hole birdie. Da Silva made a charge with a hat-trick of birdies on back nine, but he had too much of a deficit to cover up from first three days. Tabuena blew his chances with bogeys on last two holes.
Suradit started well with a birdie on his third hole but gave two shots back with a double-bogey on the next hole. The Thai was quick to make amends when he charged to the turn with three birdies in his next four holes.
But after making another birdie on 13, he dropped a shot on 14 before making four straight pars to sign off with a four-day total of 10-under-par 278.
The Thai was left to wait for 30 minutes where he watched the final group in action from the sidelines. Tabuena had the best chance to force a play-off with Suradit on 18 but his approach landed in the bunker from where he could not get his ball onto the green, resulting in a bogey, which also confirmed Suradit’s entry into the winner’s circle.