Sandhu finishes T-2nd in Taiwan

Tamsui (Chinese Taipei), Oct 6 

Ajeetesh Sandhu had to be satisfied with a tied-second finish after he blew his chances with a late double bogey in the final round of the Mercuries Taiwan Masters here today.

Thailand’s Suradit Yongcharoenchai, who began the day one shot behind the leaders — Sandhu and Philippines’ Miguel Tabuena — held his nerve in a tight finish with an even par back nine to card a 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 a 72 each. Adilson Da Silva fired a 68 to grab a share of the second position.

Among other Indians in the fray, Rashid Khan shot the best round 67 to jump to tied-fifth. However, 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 the top-10. 

Khalin Joshi (72) was tied-19th, S Chikkarangappa (78) fell to tied-37th and Chiragh Kumar (73) was tied-40th.

“It was a tough day so it was really nice to end it with that birdie on the 18th. I left a few shots out there and that really cost me the tournament,” said Sandhu. 

“I made two wrong decisions on the 16th 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 costly double on the 16th ended his hopes. — PTI