Rashid slips to third, as Danny Chia wins Taiwan Masters

Rashid Khan's late charge after a very disappointing start put paid to his chances of a third Asian Tour title as he finished tied third at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters today as Danny Chia ended a 13-year drought between his first and second Asian Tour titles.
Rashid, who held sole lead at the halfway stage had seven bogeys, four of them on the front nine, and even three birdies between 12th and 16th failed to get his challenge going. Rashid (76) ended at one-over 289.
Rashid, while taking pride in his tied-third place result in his first attempt at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters, said, "I didn't putt well again today. I was just grinding out there and trying to hang in there throughout the round. It's been a learning week for me and although I didn't finish well, I'm still happy with a tied-third place finish and looking forward to the next few tournament coming up."

Veteran Malaysian Chia held on despite a nightmarish finish of four bogeys on back including three in a row from 15th to 17th to total three-under 285 win by two shots over Liang Wen-chong (76), who himself bogeyed the last three holes to total one-under 287. Interestingly the 42-year-old Chia's only other title on Asian Tour also came in Taiwan at the Taiwan Open in 2002. He has two other wins on Asian Development Tour.
Rashid and Adilson da Silva of Brazil, who shot 72, were tied for third at one-over 289.
Of the other Indians Himmat Rai (74) was Tied-20th, Gaganjeet Bhullar (74) was Tied-23rd, while S Chikka (72) was Tied-27th and Chiragh Kumar (75) finished Tied-42nd.

Chia, who started the day in second placed at four-under and one shot behind Liang, was on fire at the start. He opened with a birdie and added two more on fourth and fifth.

Meanwhile, Liang dropped a shot on second and Rashid bogeyed first and third. Chia turned in three-under and was seven-under for the tournament, while Liang had slipped to three-under after being two-over for front nine.
Rashid had four bogeys on front nine and from three-under overnight he went to one-over and became two-over with the day's fifth bogey at 10th.
The back nine was also dramatic, as Chia bogeyed four times and Liang bogeyed the 11th and then birdied 13th and 15th to come back into contention before three bogeys in a row took the trophy away from him. Rashid had birdied on 12th, 15th and 16th but bogeys on 14th and 18th ruined whatever chances he may have had.

Chia took home a winner's prize purse of 130,000 US Dollars courtesy of his victory and propelled to eighth position on the Asian Tour Order of Merit with a season's haul of USD 188,138.