CHENNAI: Ajeetesh Sandhu is still searching for an answer. After a few minutes of erms and aahs, he concedes: “I don’t really know, to be honest. Maybe it could be one of those things, you know.”He’s talking about Indian golfers’ failure to win a single title on the Asian Tour this year. After a raft of wins at that level over the last three years, it’s all gone quiet on the greens across the continent.
The 31-year-old is perhaps one of the best-placed Indian golfers to answer that question. Sandhu was within touching distance of breaking that jinx twice, but fell agonisingly short. His second time came at Mercuries Taiwan Masters last week. He was on top of the leaderboard as the final day dawned. He even held a slender advantage with two rounds to go, but found an inopportune time to shoot a double bogey on the par-4 16th. That ultimately proved to be his downfall. He finished T2.
Needless to say, Sandhu sounded despondent when he was reliving that final day. “I am disappointed, to be honest. I was pretty much leading for three rounds and in the final round as well. I had the win in the bag... But these things happen.”
However, the Chandigarh pro cannot afford to spend time thinking about that near miss. Sandhu has his plate full over the next few months. “I am going to be playing at my home course (Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational) before the Asian Tour for the rest of the year.” He will also be in action in Japan, as he aims to qualify for the Japan Tour for 2020. That is the immediate target for Sandhu, who won his maiden Asian Tour title in 2017.
“The plan is to stick to the Asian Tour next year and also hope to play on the Japan Tour (he needs to clear qualifying school to do that). Of course, I will also play on the European Tour as and when I get an entry. I am in a higher category this year than last, so I hope to get into more tournaments there (Sandhu has a ‘conditional card’ on the European Tour).”
While Sandhu didn’t have a sponsor till last year, he has one now. But that’s still tough as, “I still have to rely on my prize money to do everything”. Some of last week’s haul of $72,000 has already been been spent on travel and accommodation for the foreseeable future.
As the conversation returns to India’s Asian Tour duck in 2019, Sandhu is confident that that won’t be the case by the time the year is out. “One of us will win a title in 2019, that’s for sure.”
Time, as always, will tell.