Angus Flanagan of England. Picture by Jason Butler/ Asian Tour.
Malaysia’s Khavish Varadan and England’s Angus Flanagan will head into the final 36 holes of the US$250,000 Aramco Invitational Tournament tied for the lead on 12-under-par.
On a day of significant leaderboard movement at the Asian Development Tour (ADT) season-ender in Saudi Arabia, Khavish added a solid 67 to his opening 65, while Flanagan fired a second successive 66 at Rolling Hills Golf Club. They top the standings by one shot from first round co-leader Carl Jano Corpus of the Philippines (63, 70) and another Englishman, Finlay Mason (64, 69).
With its sizeable prize fund, the Aramco Invitational will have a huge say in determining the final ADT Order of Merit and the top 10 players who will earn promotions to the Asian Tour next season. The top-five players on the final ADT Order of Merit will also be given starts at the US$1 million Saudi Open presented by PIF, an Asian Tour event that takes place this December 10-13 at Dirab Golf & Country Club.
Khavish, 25, noted that his game has been trending upwards since a mid-season reset. He chalked up seven birdies against two bogeys in a show of solid ball-striking.
“My golf game has been really solid after the changes my coach and I made, and it’s nice to see I’m trending in the right direction. I just trusted my ball striking, gave myself as many birdie looks as I could, and hoped that some putts might fall. That’s what I did yesterday and today,” said Khavish.
Kavish is currently in 36th place on the ADT Order of Merit, having missed the last few events on the region’s leading developmental circuit. “I was in the U.S. playing Q-School first stage, and I did Europe as well,” he explained.
“I think I’m just very focused on my game and on pleasing myself – and I’m a very hard person to please when it comes to golf! So, I’m just going to do what I did the first two days, hopefully even better,” noted the towering golfer, who played on the U.S. collegiate circuit for the University of Alabama at Birmingham before turning professional in late 2023.
Playing as a tournament invite, Flanagan had two eagles, three birdies and one bogey in a colourful round.
