Kobe, Japan, 27-09-2019
Rahil Gangjee surges into halfway lead at Panasonic Open Golf Championship after his second round of eight-under-63
India’s Rahil Gangjee turned up the heat in his title defence at the Panasonic Open Golf Championship after posting a bogey-free round of an eight-under-par 63 to seize a one-shot halfway lead on Friday.
The 40-year-old Indian, who closed with an eagle for his opening 70, picked up from where he left off as he fired eight birdies to move atop the leaderboard with a nine-under-133 total at the ¥150,000,000 (approximately US$1,338,067) event.
Japan's Ryo Ishikawa bounced back brilliantly from his opening 72 as he sizzled with a course record-tying 62 to grab a share of second place with countryman Shugo Imahira (69), Korea’s Sanghee Lee (67) and Lu Wei-chih (69) of Chinese Taipei at the Higashi Hirono Golf Club.
Ajeetesh Sandhu of India produced the shot of the day when he aced the 11th hole with a six-iron from 191 yards. He shot a 69 to lurk two shots off the pace in tied sixth place at seven-under-135.
Gangjee is chasing to become the first player to successfully defend his title at the Panasonic Open Golf Championship, which is celebrating its 10th edition on the Asian Tour and the Japan Golf Tour Organisation (JGTO) this week.
Rahil Gangjee had ended a 14-year title drought when he won his second Asian Tour title at the 2018 Panasonic Open Golf Championship last year.
In his solid round of 63, Gangjee missed only three greens in regulation, found 10 fairways and needed only 25 putts.
Gangjee said, "It wasn’t an easy day yesterday. It was very trying on my patience. The whole of yesterday I just didn’t make any putts but I fought really hard. I wanted to finish under-par and dreams came true on the last hole ninth where I made an eagle to finish one-under par.
"It was a good feeling coming back today. I know the birdies are out there, it’s just that I haven’t holed anything. When I did that today, it just kept coming. It was good. Putting was the main difference but I hit it pretty good too. I did make a lot of putts, anything from between 10 to 20 footers. It was a good putting day.
"Everything was just mundane today. Hit the fairways, greens and then make putts. I actually left like four putts out there. It could have been a lot more under-par. But I'm not complaining. The greens are playing better in the morning too.
"No thoughts right now. I just want to go out there and control the golf ball. I have been trying to do that for the last couple of years. It’s settling in now so that is what I will do for the next two rounds.
"It’s always difficult to defend because everyone is looking at you. I need to stay away from that. I try to stay away from that and don’t think about it. I just want to go and play golf. The whole of last year has been a big learning curve for me in Japan because all the courses I played were new to me.
"It’s also a different mindset because I am just trying to know about the courses and remembering the shots I hit out there. It has got nothing to do with score. Even though I don’t know the golf course well this week, that same mindset comes in and that matters to scoring and going deep.
"When you don’t think about scores, just hit the ball, find it and hit again, I think the score takes care of itself."
The Panasonic OPEN Golf Championship is the concluding leg of the 2018/19 Panasonic Swing. The Panasonic Swing is based on an aggregate point ranking earned by players at the following five tournaments - 2018 Thailand Open, 2018 Panasonic Open India, 2018 Indonesian Masters, 2019 Maybank Championship (Malaysia) and 2019 Panasonic Open Golf Championship (Japan).
The top-three finishers upon the conclusion of the 2019 Panasonic Open Golf Championship will share a bonus pool of US$150,000 where they will earn US$70,000, US$50,000 and US$30,000 respectively via the reward scheme.
Source: Asian Tour
Picture Courtesy: Asian Tour
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