KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 15
Nepal No 1 pro Sukra Bahadur Rai failed to retain his Indian Tour card after he missed the cut in the penultimate event, SSP Chawrasia Invitational at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club in Kolkata today.
Rai, who earned full cards of the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) through Qualifying School, crashed out of the INR one crore event by one shot, which meant he missed the chance of improving on his Order of Merit ranking and playing in the final event of the season, Tata Steel Tour Championship, which carried a cash purse of INR three crore.
Rai - whose best performance came at the PGTI Players Championship in Haryana where he finished eighth - is at the 71st position with the total earning of INR 462,198. He played a total of 18 events in his debut season and made cuts in eight tournaments with just one top 10 finish. The event in Kolkata was crucial for Rai to protect his card as the PGTI allows top 60 golfers to keep their card for the next season.
But he made a poor start shooting six-over 78 in the opening round yesterday.
Rai bounced back with one-under 71 in the second round today but that was not enough for him to stay in the tournament.
Rai posted the 36-hole total of five-over 149 and he missed the cut by one stroke as the cut fell at fourover 148.
Rai carded even-par 36 on his front nine before playing one-under 35 in the latter half. He was above the cut line after carding a birdie on the sixth hole - his 15th of the day - but a bogey on the par-4 eighth dashed his chances of the making the cut. He dropped shots on the 13th and 14th against birdies on the 10th and 17the holes. Rai carded two straight birdies on the first and second holes to sneak above the cut line but he fell down after he faced a bogey on the fifth. He recovered well and carded a birdie on the sixth but again dropped a shot on the eighth to crash out early.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 16, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
