Rahil Gangjee is exempted to the Final Stage based on Exemption Category C – Previous winner on the Tour 2015-2022
A record contingent of Thirty-two Indian golfers, including three amateurs, have registered for the Asian Tour Qualifying Tournament scheduled from Jan. 9-12 at Grand Prix Golf Club in Kanchanaburi and Phoenix Gold Golf in Bangkok, Thailand. Of these 32 aspirants, nine have received exemptions into the final stage based on past record while others have to go through the first stage over four rounds.
The top 70 finishers from the first stage will go through to the Final Qualifying, January 16-20 at Springfield Royal in Cha-Am, Thailand.
The Final Stage – After 90 holes ( 5 rounds), the top 35 will receive full playing rights ranked for the 2024 season.
With the Asian Tour adding the lucrative 10 event International Series since 2023 ( funded by the Saudi Public Investment fund) each with a purse of US$2 million and above – the Asian Tour has become more attractive to aspiring pro golfers, which explains the record number of entries.
Indians exempt from Qualifying – Gaganjeet Bhullar (Recent winner), Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (secured his card through ADT).
Asian Tour Order of Merit – Top 65
Karandeep Kochhar
Chikkarangappa S.
Rashid Khan
Veer Ahlawat
Ajeetesh Sandhu (Currently 66th. Needs to make just one cut in early 2024 to secure his full card)
Indian players exempted to Final Stage Qualifying –
Category B – Players in positions 66-80 from the 2023 Asian Tour Final Order of Merit.
Honey Baisoya
Category C – Asian Tour Tournament winners from 2015 – 2022.
Rahil Gangjee
Category F – Players in positions 11-20 from the 2023 Asian Development Tour Final Order of Merit
Khalin Joshi
Category M – The leading 2 players not otherwise exempt and within the top 10 from the 2023 PGTI Final Order of Merit.
Aman Raj
Sachin Baisoya
Category O – Nominated Country Exemption Players
Akshay Sharma
Yashas Chandra
Saptak Talwar
Kartik Sharma
Indians entered in the First Stage qualifiers –
Shaurya Binu
Abhinav Lohan
Divyanshu Bajaj
Akshay Neranjen
Trishul Chinappa
Aryan Roopa Anand
Anshul Patel
Jay Pandya
Rohan Patil
Jairaj Singh Sandhu
Pukhraj Singh Gill
Gaurav Singh
Arjun Sharma
Arjun Prasad
Arjun Bhati
Himmat Rai
Sunhit Bishnoi
Harshjeet Singh Sethie
Manu Gandas
Yash Majmudar
Anshul Kabhthiyal (a)
Aryaman Mohan (a)
Shaurya Bhattacharya (a)
Over the years, the Asian Tour Qualifying School has witnessed the emergence of many top players in the region. Successful graduates include Thai stars Thongchai Jaidee (1999), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (2009) and Sadom Kaewkanjana (2019); Australian Scott Hend (2007); Korea’s Yikeun Chang (2016); and the American duo of Kurt Kitayama (2018) and John Caitlin (2018).
Photo – Asian Tour