Poom keeps local boy Khalin at bay to win title
Rising India golfer Khalin Joshi fired a five-under 67 on the final round but it was not enough to stop Thailand’s Poom Saksansin from clinching his second career title at the TAKE Solutions Masters.
Local hope Joshi managed a career-best second place at the KGA after finishing with a fourday total of 14-under 270, two strokes adrift of Poom, who kept smiling and made almost no mistakes to bag a winner’s cheque of $54,000.
Joshi’s previous best was T-2nd in Bangladesh in 2015.
Ajeetesh Sandhu played his last 26 holes – back nine of third round and final round – in nineunder to leap frog to sole third, equaling his career-best of a similar finish at home in SAIL-SBI Open in 2011. Sandhu’s cards over the weekend were 67-66 for a total of 10-under 274.
Divyanshu Bajaj (69), Abhinav Lohan 69) shared the fourth place with Rory Hie (67), while Honey Baisoya (67) and Rahil
Gangjee (68) were tied-8th alongside Suradit Yongchareonchai (66). S Chikkarangappa (73), who started the day with an outside chance, never got his challenge going after the double bogey on second. He was Tied10th at six-under 278.
Shiv Kapur (69) was Tied-20th, while SSP Chawrasia (74) endured a triple bogey on par-5 11th, where he went out of bounds twice, while playing with a stiff neck for the second day running.
Khalin had a great start with three birdies in first six and a great finish with three birdies in last four, but Poom’s steady and smart golf ensured Khalin stayed behind.
Poom never trailed through week after taking the lead with a bogey-free 7-under card as one of the earlier starters on Thursday. Through four rounds, Poom had just five bogeys, three of them on the third day.
Poom found most fairways on most days – except on the third when he managed only five of the 13 fairways, but that day he found 15 of the 18 greens.