N.D. Prashant/Doha
Thailand’s ace golfer Thongchai Jaidee emerged as best Asian golfer after two rounds of the Commercialbank Qatar Masters here at the Doha Golf Club yesterday.
GOING STRONG: Jaidee
Unlike the opening day, the wind remained calm and taking full advantage of it was Jaidee, who put up a great show for a bogey-free second round. A score of three under for the day was enough for the Thai star to jump up the leaderboard and share the seventh spot with five other golfers.
India’s Jeev Milkha Singh, who led the Asian charge in the opening round with one over par also put up a strong performance in the second round to finish the day with an aggregate of 144. Singh is currently sharing the eighth spot with 10 others. Other Asians who failed to make the cut are India’s Shiv Kapur and Korea’s Seung-yul Noh.
Kapur finished the second round on par but it was not enough as he had shot four over on day one. Noh, who started the day with two over, slipped further down after two bogeys each in the front and back nine. The Korean thus, finished his campaign with a joint score of five over.
“I played very well and my game was better today. Yesterday the weather was bad and so I couldn’t get some form going. Today we hit three under and no bogey; it was good. Very good that we finished our round early today,” said a visibly pleased Jaidee, who is currently ranked 68th in the world.
Somehow Jaidee has always done well in the past playing here at the Qatar Masters and the Thai, who scored birdies in the 9th, 12th and 16th holes, revealed that course was very much to his liking. “I have always enjoyed this course. The greens are firm and nice. Wind has always been testing here but if things stay like this for the remaining days, I know I can put up a good score,” said Jaidee.
India’s Singh had an eventful first nine where he started off with a birdie. However, a bogey in the third and double bogey in the fifth dented his chances severely. The 39-yr-old, however, remained undeterred and came up with birdies in the sixth and seventh holes. Again, a bogey in the ninth hole saw the highest ranked Indian golfer in the world go into the back nine with a score of two over.
The Indian had pulled up his socks and he did that in style, by not only remaining bogey-free but also birdied twice in the 10th and 17th holes.
“I shot one under for even par but I could have improved on that score. Few mental errors here and there but on the whole, I’m happy with the way things have gone so far as I’m coming out of an injury. I made a double bogey on number five, bearing that things were okay. Two more days to do and I’m very much looking forward to it,” said a visibly pleased Singh, who had his wife and one-yr-old son for company yesterday at the course.