Rashid Khan best Indian at Tied-fifth in Malaysia

Rashid Khan carded a four-under 67 to emerge as the best Indian after the first round of the USD 300,000 Sabah Masters on Thursday.

Three other Indians -- Aman Raj, Udayan Mane and Khalin Joshi -- carded three-under 68 each to be inside Top-10 on the opening day.

The lead was shared by four players led by young Thai talent Phachara Khongwatmai, who hit some solid approach shots to sign for a five-under-par 66.

The 20-year-old Thai shared the lead with Indonesia's Joshua Andrew Wirawan as well as Aaron Wilkin and David Gleeson of Australia at the Sutera Harbour Golf and Country Club.

Among other Indians, Jyoti Randhawa (69) was T-22, Aadil Bedi (70) was T-32, Karandeep Kochhar (71) was T-44, Abhijit Chadha and Himmat Rai with 72 each were T-60, Priyanshu Singh (74) was T-87, Jeev Milkha Singh (75) was T-100 and Lakshay Mudgil (79) was T-122.

Starting from the tenth tee, Rashid had three birdies on 11th, 14th and 16th but was undone by a double bogey on 18th.

On the second nine, he birdied second, third and fifth to shoot 67.

Aman Raj and Kochhar had six birdies against three bogeys while Udayan had four birdies against one bogey in a steady round.

Ben Leong returned with a 67 to trail the leading quartet by one alongside in-form Joohyung Kim and Sungho Lee of Korea, India's Rashid Khan and Wang Wei-lun of Chinese Taipei in the tournament, which is the ninth event on the 2019 Asian Tour schedule.