Baisoya lone Indian to earn Asian Tour card
Delhi boy Honey Baisoya, a six-time winner on the Indian PGTI Tour, finished T-23 in the gruelling five-round 2020 Asian Tour Qualifying School in Hua Hin, Thailand on Sunday to earn an Asian Tour card.
The 23-year-old, Baisoya, who has played in Asian Tour events at home and some outside will now get to play a decent number of Asian Tour events this season. Baisoya, who played junior golf alongside Shubhankar Sharma and often beat him, shot rounds of 69-67-70-70-72 for a total of seven-under 348 and finished T-23 in the 90-hole qualifiers.
He was the only Indian to earn the card from the 18 who started the week. Nine of them survived the first cut, which fell after 36 holes, and a further four missed the second cut, which came after four rounds.
In the fifth and final round, the Top-70 included five Indians fighting for the 35 cards. Only Baisoya made the card from them.
Veer Ahlawat (70-71-68-70-72) was four-under and T-40, while Khalin Joshi (72-67-70-72-71) and Yashas Chandra (72-72-67-69-72) were three-under for T-52nd.
Manu Gandas (71-72-67-71-75) was one-over and T-64th.
The 35 graduates feature players from Korea (8), Thailand (6),
Australia (5), South Africa (3), Sweden (3), United States (2), Japan (2), France (1), India (1), Ireland (1), Myanmar (1), Philippines (1) and Zimbabwe (1).
Zimbabwean Benjamin FollettSmith restored his much-needed confidence after closing with a one-under-par 70 to finish top of the class with a one-shot victory.
Playing in his third straight attempt at the Qualifying School, the 23-year-old led the gruelling 90-hole battle from the second round before carding three birdies against two bogeys for a five-day total of 15-under-par 340.
The 2020 Asian Tour Qualifying School, which comprised of two stages — first stage and final stage — attracted a total of 458 entries from 37 countries across the globe.
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.