Mardan Mamat Wins Bangladesh Open Golf, Khalin Joshi Finishes 2nd
Mardan Mamat shot two-under 69 and finished two shots clear of Khalin Joshi and newcomer Asian Tour Qualifying School graduate Soomin Lee of Korea, who shot 67 including an eagle on 17th.
Khalin Joshi achieved his best result ever in an Asian Tour event, but still left the Bangladesh Open with a twinge of disappointment, having come so close and miss out on his maiden title.
With his putter just not doing his bidding, Joshi, 22, ended with a final round of three-under 68 and finished in a tie for second.
Finishing ahead of him was veteran Mardan Mamat, who at 47, is more than twice his age.
Mamat shot two-under 69 and finished two shots clear of Joshi and newcomer Asian Tour Qualifying School graduate Soomin Lee of Korea, who shot 67 including an eagle on 17th.
Joshi, whose previous best was Tied-11th at SAIL-SBI Open in his rookie year 2013, finished with four birdies and two bogeys. On the back nine, time and again Joshi missed out on birdie putts before eventually landing one on 18th, by which time it was too late as Mamat had built a three-shot lead, which became two. As his putter turned cold, Joshi had eight pars and a closing birdie on back nine.
"I'm disappointed with my result but not my game. To be honest, I expected to win. My putter let me down the whole week. If I putted better, I could have won this tournament. But Mardan got the better of everybody. He played really well from tee to green. He is the rightful champion," said Joshi.
Other Indians also had a decent tournament with Amardip Malik (69) making a late dash with three birdies in last five holes and finished tied seventh at six-under 278, while Sujjan Singh with a bogey free 67 was tied 11th at five-under 279 and Rahil Gangjee (69) was tied 13th with another Indian Om Prakash Chouhan (72) at four-under 280.
S Chikkarangappa (66) with eight birdies and three bogeys was tied 22nd at one-under 283, while M Dharma (69) was tied 25th and Chiragh Kumar (73) was tied 28th.