Chachoengsao, Thailand, 08-11-2019
Ajeetesh Sandhu, SSP Chawrasia in tied third in Thailand, Shiv Kapur fires course record eight-under-63 to rise to tied 10th; Shubhankar Sharma posts top-notch eight-under-63 to be tied 11th in Turkey
Indians Ajeetesh Sandhu and S.S.P. Chawrasia carded scores of four-under-67 in round two of the Asian Tour's Thailand Open and thus moved into tied third at seven-under-135. The Indian duo trailed the joint leaders, the Thai pair of Poom Pattaropong and amateur Natthaphat Harnchokchaiskul, by one shot.
Sandhu and Chawrasia made a gain of nine spots from their overnight tied 12th place.
Ajeetesh, who made six birdies and two bogeys on Friday, said, "I putted pretty well. It was windy out there so it was tough to get it close. But, yeah, I scored well. Thankfully, the wind was quite consistent through, so it wasn't screwing with our minds too much. But yeah, it was still tough out there.
"I have been playing well recently. Everything's just kind of settled in. I’m happy with how I’m hitting it, short game is good. My caddy Suriya and I worked a lot on almost every aspect of my game and it's nice when it kind of clicks together."
India’s Shiv Kapur, who opened his campaign with a 74, took a great leap forward after creating a new course record on the par-71 set-up with his blistering round of eight-under-63.
The 37-year-old Kapur's flawless effort helped him settle three shots off the pace in tied 10th position at five-under-137.
Kapur said, "It’s been two different days for me it seems. I don’t think I played that poorly yesterday. I just couldn’t score because I couldn’t hole a putt. I was struggling a bit and I hit it into the rough a lot yesterday but it didn’t look as bad as my score of 74. I went back to reflect upon it.
"I thought it was a bit better today, found something in my swing and just kind of stuck to my game plan really. The conditions were a lot harder today. It was quite breezy and the closing holes were playing quite tough into the wind. But you know when you’re playing well, things will always go your way.
"Putting is always key anytime you shoot a low score like this. I started off hitting two or three really close so it was a good start. I holed a couple of good ones like the 20-footers on 13 and 15. The longest putt I holed today was on the third. It was about 30 feet. Those are three long ones and the others were pretty close from inside six feet.
"It was a combination of hitting the ball well and making a few putts, which didn’t happen for me yesterday. I would probably rank this course one of my top-three favourites and that’s the reason why I came to play this week.
"I have had a pretty poor season so far. It's been very lackluster. I have been missing a lot of halfway cuts by a shot. I would have liked to take on from my 2017 season where I won three events. I want to build on that. But, you know, that's golf, sometimes things don't go your way but there's a long way to go with a lot of big events coming up.
"Playing at home next week too and the Hong Kong Open after which is another course I really like. We have got a strong stretch coming up so if I can finish the season well, it would give me some confidence going into next year."
At the European Tour's Turkish Airlines Open, Shubhankar Sharma struck a sizzling bogey-free eight-under-64 to rise 11 spots to tied 11th place at nine-under-135. It was among Sharma's best performances of the season.
Shubhankar trails the leader, Matthias Schwab of Austria, by three shots.
Source: Asian Tour
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