Fluent Khalin joins Siddikur in lead at Panasonic Open golf tourney

Khalin Joshi raised hopes of a seventh Indian win in eight editions of the Panasonic Open India with the weeks best card of 64 that carried him into the share of the lead with Siddikur Rahman at the latters favourite Delhi Golf Club here on Saturday.

Joshi is still looking for his first Asian Tour win, despite two runner-up finishes in Bangladesh (Bangladesh Open in 2015) and Bengaluru (Take Solutions Masters in 2017), while Siddikur stayed in the hunt for his second Asian Tour title at the DGC, where he won his last Asian Tour title, the Indian Open in 2013.

Siddikur battled to 2-under 70 with pars in each of his last seven holes, where he missed a bunch of chances, while Joshi flew to a smooth 64 with nine birdies and a bogey. The duo is now 13-under 203.

Joshi has three wins on the PGTI but none on the Asian Tour, and this season he has been in Top-10 three times on the Asian Tour. Curiously, Joshi shot 64 in the third round of the Take Solutions to get one behind the lead, but faded in the final round to finish T-6 and Viraj Madappa won his maiden title.

Ajeetesh Sandhu (70), stayed as sole third at 12-under, while overnight co-leader Thai Suradit Yongcharoenchai (72) after turning in 2-under, just could not get the putts to fall and also dropped two bogeys to slip to fourth at 11-under.

Sandhu once again could not get going on the par-5s and had just one birdie from them.

Seven weeks after winning his maiden title on the domestic PGTI Tour, Aman Raj (68) made a smart move up from T-12th to T-5th at 10-under. Five players including Sachin Baisoya (67) and M Dharma (70) were T-6th at 9-under.

Things did not pan out well for Jeev Milkha Singh (75) as he slipped from T-6th to T-24th, while defending champion Shiv Kapur (71) played his third successive under par round but could not get going for a low score and was T-17th.

--IANS

tri/vm