Bengaluru: Local talent Khalin Joshi, who has played the KGA Course more often than anybody else in this field, made the right moves on the traditional moving day to shoot a flawless 7-under 64 to zoom from Tied-8th to Tied-2nd in the US$ 350,000 TAKE Solutions Masters at the KGA. That it was also his 26th birthday made the card and the score even better.
He admitted it would be a nice birthday present if he could convert this into his maiden Asian Tour win. Joshi is now 13-under and one shot behind Miguel Carballo, who after travelling the world and playing in European Challenge, European, Web and PGA Tour is now in search of his first win in Asia. Carballo shot 67 and at 14-under he is in sole lead.
Overnight leader, Danthai Boonma, who had seven birdies in his first holes a day earlier, was the only player among top 24 to go over par and he had a 2-over 73, but is still Tied-2nd with Joshi.
Joshi missed just one fairway and two green but had no bogeys and said, “I played really well today. What’s more important is that I played bogey free. That was my key. I think I’m in a good position for tomorrow, so I’m really excited.”
“I want to play my own game and not look at anybody. I had set myself a target of 20-under and hopefully I can achieve it. Playing 7-under tomorrow will be great.”
Joshi, who shot a 10-under 62 on the then Par-72 course, a few months before turning pro in 2012, had seven bogeys and hit a purple patch in the middle of the round, when he birdied four on a row from ninth to 12th. During that period he had five bogeys in a stretch of six holes from seventh to 12th. The tightly packed leaderboard had no less than 10 players within three shots of the leader and it had a strong Indian flavour with five of them from the host country.
