Volvo Masters of Asia - Bangkok Dec. 11, 2003

ajay · Post by **ajay** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 9:56 pm

After gaining 2004 US PGA card, another milestone awaits Arjun Atwal - the Order of Merit (OOM) Title for Asian PGA after the season ending Volvo Masters of Asia - Bangkok December 11-14, 2003. Can Arjun carry over the momentum of PGA qualifier to Bangkok and win this tournament?

Only Tour's top-60 players on the Order of Merit plus 12 sponsor's invites gained exemption into the season-ending event.
Arjun Atwal is in comfortable position as China's Zhang Lian-wei is the only serous contender, who is $31,624 behind Arjun.

With the current scenario, Atwal will succeed compatriot Jyoti Randhawa as the new Asian PGA Tour merit list winner if Zhang finishes lower than second place in Thailand as third-place prize money is US$30,000.

Last year Kevin Na - a teen ager at that time, (now 20) pipped Arjun Singh (T2) and some other players to win the tournament. Incidently, the talented yougster and the defending star Na also won the berth for US PGA along with Arjun Atwal and Daniel Chopra in the just concluded PGA qualifier.

Last year, Arjun Atwal and Thongchai Jaidee, who had a chance to beat Jyoti Randhawa to win Order of Merit title finished T41 and T32 respectively. Jyoti Randhawa also didn't fare well as he himself finished T32. All three were nervous in the race for OOM

The winner of this tournament will most probably get an exemption to the World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 3:56 am

I imagine that Arjun will be in much better form this year, given that he will be under less pressure (as he has only one serious competitor for the Order of Merit, and he himself has just gained his PGA tour card). Good to see him and Daniel flying back to play in Thailand.
I recall last year Jyoti, Thongchai and Arjun all played rather poorly as they were essentially fending each other off in the OoM stakes -- rather than trying to win the specific tournament.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 7:03 pm

It will be interesting to follow Arjun Atwal and Daniel at the final APGA tournament of the year. Both must be tired after a gruelling 6 day event in USA and then having to fly to Bangkok without having a chance to celebrate their victories in Florida. I am surprised that Daniel is making the trip to Bangkok since he does not have a chance to win the Order of Merit and was not feeling well on the last two days of the PGA qualifier. He probably feels that he is playing well and can do well in the last Asian PGA tournament, and may be have a vacation in Asia after the tournament.

Go Arjun and Daniel.

ajay · Post by **ajay** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 7:19 pm

The tee times for the Volvo Masters are out there. Here are the tee times of "interesting players" and their partners.

Code: Select all

7.00	 Anujit Hirunrattanakorn (A - Tha)
    	 Harmeet Kahlon Ind)
7.16	 Arjun Singh Ind)
    	 Yasin Ali (Eng)
7.32	 Lim Eng Seng (A - Mas)
    	 Sandeep Grewal Eng)
10.28	Amandeep Johl (Ind)
    	 Jason Dawes (Aus)
10.44	Simon Yates (Sco)
    	 Jyoti Randhawa Ind)
11.16	Daniel Chopra (Swe)
    	 Gary Rusnak (USA)
11.24	Chawalit Plaphol (Tha)
    	 Arjun Atwal (Ind)

We see another PIO, 22 yr. old Sandeep Grewal from UK. I remember reading about him once on EPGA site, but I don't know much about him.

Arjun and Daniel will reach Bangkok Wed afternoon. Probably they were accomodated with a late start. Incidently, the defending champion Kevin Na missed the flight due to late finish at PGA qualifier and he won't be defending his title.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 9:34 pm

Ajay, I had also seen his name on the European PGA Tour this year and here is a link about him. He has played Challenger events.

Sandeep Grewal

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 6:55 am

The Volvo Masters of Asia will have 66 professional and 4 amateur golfers from 20 countries. Arjun Atwal and Lian Wei Zhang of China will be going head to head to try to win the Order of Merit title. If either of them wins the Volvo Masters of Asia then he also gets the Order of Merit since the first place prize money is $90,000. If someone else wins the tournament then read the following article about the permutations.

All to play for - winner takes all

Go Arjun and Daniel.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 1:45 am

The Volvo Masters of Asia has started today but I believe both Arjun and Daniel are tired after a 30 hour long trip with three stopovers. Arjun opted not to practice yesterday as he said it would 'kill him' and said he would ask some of the other players about the Bangkok Golf Club course. "I am looking at the Volvo Masters of Asia as a four day event. I am not going to try and win it in the first couple of days. I will go out tomorrow and learn a little bit and hopefully I will get it right by Sunday," said Arjun Atwal.

Go Daniel and Arjun! Slow and steady wins the race.

High Flying Awtal Set For Volvo Masters Of Asia

ajay · Post by **ajay** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 8:51 am

The season ending cash rich Volvo Master has indeed started. And it is a good start by Indian Mafia.

Code: Select all

1 	Ted PURDY     	USA	F	62				-9
6 	Jyoti RANDHAWA	IND	F	67				-4
18	Harmeet KAHLON	IND	F	69				-2
18	Amandeep JOHL 	IND	F	69				-2
35	Arjun SINGH   	IND	F	71				E
35	Arjun ATWAL   	IND	F	71				E
35	ZHANG Lian-wei	CHN	F	71				E
43	Daniel CHOPRA 	SWE	F	72				1
56	Sandeep GREWAL	ENG	F	74				3

What a topsy turvy day for Harmeet Khalon (the followers here may remember that he earlier played but missed the European qualifier). He started the day with a birdie on 1st, a good sign for the day, followed by a par on 2nd. But suddenly the day became cloudy for him as he bogied, doubl bogied and bogied consecutively on 3rd, 4th and 5th. He stopped the rut with two pars, but followed it again with a bogey on 8th. He finished the fron nine with a card of +4 and soon on 11th it was +5. But here comes the plot of the story. The lady luck smiled when he eagled the 12th (+3) followed by birdies on 13th, 14th and 15th to go back to the par. A par 16th stopped the string of birdies, and he closed out with another two birdies on 17th and 18th for a final card of -2.
A double bogey and 4 bogies matched by 6 birdies and an eagle.

The best card among Indians belonged to Jyoti. He had two strings of birdies from 6th to 8th and later fro 16th to 18th, and an additional birdie at 12th. But his day was marred by a double bogey at 10th and another bogey at 15th. With a card of -4 he is placed 6th on the leaderboard.

After a real tiring 6 day qualifier and such a mad rush and tiring journey to reach Bangkok, the PGA buddies Arjun Atwal and Dan were back on the golf course and did reasonably well to finish with a par and one over par round respectively. Arjun Atwal had three birdies and 3 bogies while Daniel Chopra had two birdies for 3 bogies.

The OOM challenger Zhang also finished on par as he lost his advantage on the last hole with a double bogey.

The leader is Daniel Chopra's fellow NW golfer and APGA's vetran Ted Purdy who had a bogey free 9 under par round. Ted Purdy also made it to PGA for 2004 by finishing 15th in NW moneylist this year.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 2:02 pm

It looks as if Arjun and Zhang will shadow each other like Jyoti and Thongchai did last year. But that's not enough for Zhang: he needs to finish 3rd or better here to be sure of taking the OOM from Arjun (right?).

ajay · Post by **ajay** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 5:49 pm

It will be a critical day for Zhang today. He need to make a big move to keep his chances of OOM alive and he'll be under pressure. IMO it is a too much of an uphill task for Zhang and Arjun Atwal will safely win the OOM title.
Zhang need to win, or finish 2nd along with Arjun not doing well for the OOM title

My intution says, this could be Jyoti's tournament. Let's see.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 5:54 am

On the second day of the Volvo Masters both Arjun Atwal and Daniel are probably showing the effects of tiredness and lack of practice on the Bangkok golf course as they had rounds of 73 and 71 respectively on a day when many golfers are having sub-par rounds.

Arjun started off well with birdies on the 1st, 3rd and 4th holes but then had a double bogey on the 6th and 9th holes and a bogey on the 7th to go 2 over par for the first 9 holes. On the back nine he had birdies on the 11th, 15th and 17th and then disaster struck. On the par 5 18th hole he had a 4 over par 9!!!!

Did he fall asleep on the 18th hole after his hectic journey from Florida to Bangkok?

Daniel started off with a bogey on the 3rd hole and then had birdies on the 5th and 6th holes followed by bogeys on the 7th and 8th holes to go one over par on the front nine. On the back nine he started with a double bogey on the 10th hole, and then had birdies on the 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th holes but ended with a bogey on the 18th hole (? tiredness; unfamiliarity with the course).

Thongchai Jaidee who also travelled from Florida to Bangkok for this tournament but should be well familiar with the golf course fired a round of 64.

Liang Zhang had a round of 67 today and is -4 for the tournament and is 5 strokes ahead of Daniel and 6 strokes ahead of Arjun.

Hopefully Arjun and Daniel will learn from their mistakes today and turn in spectacular performances on the last two days.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 6:31 am

2nd day:

Arjun Singh 73 (71, 73 = 144 +2)

Sandeep Grewal (UK) 71 (74, 71 = 145 +3)

Jyoti Randhawa, Amandeep Johl and Harmeet are still on the course.

nayan · Post by **nayan** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 11:24 am

2nd day:

Jyoti Randhawa -8
Amandeep Johl -4
Harmeet Kahlon -3

ajay · Post by **ajay** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 7:35 pm

Atwal, who made history on Monday by becoming the first Indian to earn a US PGA Tour card from Qualifying School, stumbled to a 73 which included a quadruple bogey nine on the par five 18th hole.

The Indian star, winner of the Carlsberg Malaysian Open and Indian Masters earlier this year, found water twice. “It was like a scene from ‘Tin Cup’ (the movie). I just didn’t know what hit me there.”

Asian PGA Report

Randhawa, winner of last year's Asian PGA Tour Order of Merit title, was racing up the leaderboard until a double bogey on the 13th. He came in with a 67.

"Ted is shooting the daylights out of the golf course, so I better shoot some low numbers tomorrow to try and catch him or otherwise he'll run away with this," said Randhawa, who this year became the first player from his country to win in Japan.
Day 2 Report

ajay · Post by **ajay** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 8:01 pm

Here is the positions of the players of interest

Code: Select all

Pos	Player      	ctry	Rd1  Rd 2  score
 1	Ted PURDY     	USA	62	66	-14
 3	Jyoti RANDHAWA	IND	67	67	 -8
22	Amandeep JOHL 	IND	69	69	 -4
28	Harmeet KAHLON	IND	69	70	 -3
32	ZHANG Lian-wei	CHN	71	69	 -2
49	Daniel CHOPRA 	SWE	72	71	  1
55	Arjun SINGH   	IND	71	73	  2
55	Arjun ATWAL   	IND	71	73	  2
60	Sandeep GREWAL	ENG	74	71	  3

Zhang is 7 strokes behind the second place (-9). The OOM is still in his reach as on this course people have been shooting some low numbers like 62, 63, 64. But I believe that Jyoti will make sure that 2nd place is out of Zhang's reach

Go Jyoti!!

Jyoti himself is still targetting the top position. Jyoti is 6 strokes behind Ted Purdy. Jyoti need to shoot 63-64 today to have a chance.