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Bangalore duo Khalin, Chikka make cut at Asian Tour Q-School

Bangalore duo, Khalin Joshi and S Chikkarangappa were the only Indian golfers to make the cut in the Asian Tour Qualifying School Final Stage here Thursday.

Hua Hin: Bangalore duo, Khalin Joshi and S Chikkarangappa were the only Indian golfers to make the cut in the Asian Tour Qualifying School Final Stage here Thursday.
Joshi in particular staged a great comeback to cross the first hurdle as he carded four-under 67 at the par-71 Imperial Lakeview Club to get to two-under 141. He had played a two-over 74 in the first round at par-72 Springfield course. Khalin is now tied 54th. Chikka, who shot a three-under 69 at Springfield went to two-over 73 at Imperial Golf Club to squeeze inside the cut line, which fell at one-under for two rounds and is tied 71st. Chikka speaking of his first round said: "It was a good round. I started really well. I was three-under after five holes. I hit some good shots at the start of the round. However, I didn`t play very well on the back nine and hit a couple of bad shots because the wind was really blowing." "Before coming here, I had a chat with Anirban (Lahiri) and he had a lot of inputs. He said that this is my first Asian Tour Qualifying School and that I should just go out there and play without any expectations." The remaining 11 Indians fell by the wayside, though Kunal Bhasin, the Australian of Indian origin, who plays on Indian PGTI Tour shot a second successive 68, this time on par-71 Imperial to get to tied fifth spot. Sujjan Singh started well in first round with 68 but shot 76 in second and crashed out. Other Indians missing out were Kapil Kumar (69-75), Angad Cheema (70-73), Ajeetesh Sandhu (71-72), Kapil Kumar (69-750, Shubhankar Sharma (70-75), Abhinav Lohan (72-74), Shankar Das (73-74), Karan Taunk (73-76), Abhijit Chadha (77-72), Vikrant Chopra (74-76) and Honey Baisoya (76-75). The joint leaders are Jarin Todd (67-67) and Paul Peterson (66-68) of the United States. Seb Gros of France, Martin Rominger of Switzerland and overnight leader Nathan Holman shared third place after signing for rounds of 67, 69 and 72 respectively on matching 135s. China`s Hu Mu hopes to keep his momentum going after signing for a one-under 70 at halfway stage. Hu, who opened with a 68 at the par-72 Imperial Lakeview Golf Club, compiled a two-day total of five-under 138 to stay four shots back. A total of 82 players successfully progressed to the final two rounds, which will be played only at Springfield Royal where the top-40 and ties will earn an Asian Tour card for the 2014 season after the final round.