Rashid Khan flies into contention on a 63, Chawrasia remains in the hunt in Hong Kong

11 January 2020: On an eventful moving day at the Hong Kong Golf Club, Rashid Khan emulated SSP Chawrasia’s effort in the second round, scoring 7-under 63 moving to T3 alongside Chawrasia. But Chawrasia (69), looking to narrow the gap from Wade Ormsby, succumbed to a bogey on the 18th to end the day in T7 with Chan Shih-chang at 8-under 202. Wade Ormsby is perched at the top, 13-under through 54 holes, with a 66 on Saturday. Gunn Charoenkul is sitting in second at 11-under on the strength of a brilliant 65.

An eagle at the third was the highlight of Ormsby’s card on Saturday. He also made three birdies as he marched into Sunday with a two-stroke advantage over Charoenkul and four ahead the four man group in third place.

“The game feels pretty good. I probably struck it the best I have all week early today. Being in front everyone’s chasing you, but I kept the mistakes off the card on the back side there. So, I’m in a pretty good position. There’s no point in getting too up or too down, I’m just trying to keep going doing my thing. Whether it’s an eagle or a birdie, I’m trying to do the same when I make a bogey,” said Ormsby.

“I’m not going to play conservative, I’ll play the golf course exactly the same way I played it for 10-15 years and let them come at me,” he said, explaining his approach for the final round. “It is a good golf course and you know I’m not a massively powerful player, so I just have to play to my strengths and this golf course does fit my strengths.”

Bunch of birdies fire Rashid Khan up the order

Rashid produced a blazing run of birdies at the turn to make his move on Saturday. After a pair of successive birdies at the fifth and sixth, he stumbled to a bogey at the ninth. But he remained unfazed, bouncing back in style, making four straight birdies to go six-under with five to play. He polished his card with an eighth birdie on the par-4 18th hole to end the day in T3.

“I made a lot of birdies and I holed some really good putts. Made some good up and downs on holes where I got really stuck,” said Khan. “It’s that situation where I had to keep my momentum going. I have given myself a chance to go for the title now. I have one more round to go so let’s see. I hope to finish well. I have no expectations to be honest.

“When I played the last tournament, I wasn’t hitting it good and didn’t do well scoring wise. I was too tired from playing so many tournaments last year, especially at the end of the year. I had only like one week off. I came to this week on Tuesday feeling sick as well. So I wasn’t expecting to be in contention. I got better now and I told myself that I have played the course before and I should try my best to play well. Luckily, I did and I’m scoring well.”

Terry Pilkadaris shot a 64 while Taewoo Kim and Jazz Janewattananond settled for 66 and 67 respectively to join the big group of men in T3, including Khan. SSP Chawrasia and Shiv Kapur are the other Indians inside the top ten. Kapur shot 69 to reach the final round at 7-under.

There are only two par-5s on the short yet tricky course in Hong Kong and Ormsby made the most of it on Saturday. He shot an eagle on the third and a birdie on the 13th to buttress his lead over the field. Charoenkul had reached the weekend on a pair of 67s and the Thai star raised the stakes with a brilliant 65 in the third round.

Shane Lowry and Tony Finau make their presence felt

Open champion, Shane Lowry and Tony Finau, the big name attractions this week kept themselves within shouting distance with scores of 68 and 65 respectively. Finau got most of his work done upfront, firing four birdies in five holes from the par-5 third hole. Both men in the group of six tied in ninth including Kapur.

Chikkarangappa made a 69 for his 2-under 208, with Rahil Gangjee (69) and Ajeetesh Sandhu (72) on his heels at 1-under through the third round. Aman Raj was two-over on Saturday, slipping to one-over at T57.

Jyoti Randhawa suffered a disqualification as he signed for a wrong score in the third round. He pencilled in a four on the seventh, when it should have been a five. That meant, Jyoti had to leave the tournament abruptly at the end of the third round.

Asian Tour Notes

• Wade Ormsby won his first Asian Tour title at the Panasonic Open India in 2013 and is playing on a sponsor’s invitation this week.
• Ormsby won the Hong Kong Open in 2017 by one-shot with a final round two-under-par 68.
• Should Omrsby win the Hong Kong Open again, he will become the second wire-to-wire winner after Aaron Rai (2018).
• Ormsby had four top-10s worldwide with his best results coming on home soil when he finished tied-second and tied-third at the ISPS Handa Vic Open and Australian PGA Championship respectively.
• Gunn Charoenkul had a great end to his 2019 season, finishing tied-fourth at the Nippon Series JT Cup on the Japan Golf Tour, second at the BNI Indonesian Masters and fifth at the Asian Tour season finale Thailand Masters.
• The Thai spent most of last year playing on the Japan Golf Tour where he has racked up 10 top-10 finishes and finishing 21st in the Money Rankings for the year. He also finished second in scoring average with 70.12 and first in greens-in-regulation with 73.63%.
• In all his events played in 2019 that were Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) events, he posted 19 top-10 finishes across all tours.
• In 2019 he also qualified for his first Major, The Open Championship at Royal Portrush, by finishing tied-third at the Gate Way to The Open Mizuno Open on the Japan Golf Tour.
• His best finishes on the Asian Tour have been two runners-up. In addition to finishing second in Jakarta last December he also did so at the 2016 Queen’s Cup.
• He currently leads the field in GIR with 90.74%
• Having lost his card in 2018, Rashid Khan’s tied-second place finish at the Classic Golf and Country Club International Championship last year virtually his playing rights for the 2020 season.
• Khan won twice on the Asian Tour in 2014, the Chiangmai Golf Classic and the SAIL-SBI Open, on his way to a career best 11th on the Order of Merit with US$243,600 in earnings.
• Terry Pilkadaris has played on the Asian Tour since 2002 and has won three career titles: the 2004 Crowne Plaza Open and Sanya Open, and the 2005 Brunei Open.
• The Australian also had his best two seasons in 2004 and 2005 when he finished fifth on the Order of Merit on both occasions, and he has never finished outside of the top-60 since that time.
• Pilkadaris’ best result in 2019 was a fourth place finish at the Panasonic Open India.