Mixed bag for Rashid after a strong performance, but a disappointing final round, in Jakarta
Only 3 of 11 Indians made the cut at the Asian Tour’s $2 Million BNI Indonesian Masters in Jakarta as Delhi’s Rashid Khan slipped to T25, after holding a promising tied-third position at the halfway stage. Khan opened with rounds that kept him among the leaders, but a 72 and 71 over the weekend dropped him to an 11-under-par for the tournament — a respectable finish, yet short of where he would have liked to finish.
Veteran Indian golfer S.S.P. Chawrasia from Kolkata, a former European Tour winner, finished at T41, while defending champion Gaganjeet Bhullar couldn’t put up a good title defense despite his recent good form and ended at T44.
The disheartening trend continues for Indian Pros playing around Asia with so many missing the cut each week. Currently, Bhullar is the highest-ranked Indian player in the Asian Tour rankings at the 51st spot. This indicates a worrying decline in Indian men’s golf and raises concerns, as there seems to be little initiative from any of our national golfing bodies to address the issue.
The lack of fresh talent is also evident at home; Only one rookie has won on the PGTI in the past five years, suggesting stagnation at both domestic and international levels. The broader context reveals a stark contrast between India and the rest of the golfing world, which is advancing standards rapidly due to better quality courses, corporate sponsorship for player development, scientific coaching, physical training, physiotherapy, and quality tournaments.
India has slipped far behind in Asia and our country, which for many years proudly used to host four Asian Tour events annually, has not hosted an Asian Tour event in either 2023 or 2024, something which would have seemed unthinkable a few years ago.
Canada’s Richard T. Lee secured a wire-to-wire victory to emerge as winner, ending his seven-year title drought.
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