Hong Kong Open: Taichi Kho faces nervy wait to see if he’ll make cut in home tournament
Taichi Kho faced a nervy wait to see if he would make the cut at the Hong Kong Open on Friday, after a battling round of 70 left him at two-under-par for the tournament.
Kho struggled early at Hong Kong Golf Club, and a double bogey at 18, his eighth hole of the day, took him to three over and four shots from safety.
But the Hongkonger rattled off four birdies on the front nine, and his final one of the round at 10, may well have been the most important.
The day started with the cut line at one under, and moved to two under with plenty of players still to complete their rounds.
“Pretty rough first few holes I would say,” Kho said. “I didn’t quite pick the right shots at the right times. And made some poor swings so that compounded errors.
“But I am really happy I was able to stay in the present at all times. I was quite far out of the tournament, but I stayed disciplined to my game plan. I was really happy to finish mentally strong.
“I obviously have a lot of good golf in me and just to get that out at the end was great.”
Kho was once again playing alongside overnight co-leader Cameron Smith, and the Australian again set the pace, carding a for four-under-par 66.
Smith was joined at the top of the leaderboard in the morning by South Korea’s Sang-moon Bae on 11-under overall at a sweltering Fanling.
The 30-year-old Smith was out for his second round starting at 6.45am.
“The 3:30 alarm this morning was a little bit much,” said Smith, who is chasing victory at Asia’s oldest professional golf tournament for the first time.
“The body wasn’t quite there this morning, it was probably still a little bit asleep. But I managed to do what I really needed to do and go into the weekend with a shot.”
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