A maiden Asian Tour title in his kitty, Panasonic Open India champion Khalin Joshi now wants to emulate fellow Indian Shubhankar Sharma by securing a European Tour card in the next two months.
Joshi carded a four-under 68 on the final day to notch up a one-stroke win, becoming the seventh Indian to win the Panasonic Open India in the last eight editions.
He has now trained his eyes on winning one of the European co-sanctioned events -- Hong Kong (Nov 22-25), Mauritius Open (Nov 29-Dec 2) and Joburg Open (Dec 7-10) -- to secure his card.
"I'm playing Jeev Milkha Singh invitational in Chandigarh next week, I will go home then for two weeks and then I have four big weeks coming up. I am going to go back work on my game a little bit and come back fresh for Hong Kong," Joshi told reporters at the press conference.
"So hopefully I can do what my friend Shubhankar did last year and try to get my card secured on the European tour. So that is the focus now," said the three-time winner on the PGTI, referring to Shubhankar's maiden European Tour title win at Joburg Open last year."
Joshi had two top-10 finishes on the Asian Tour earlier this season.
"I will not be thinking about the Asian Tour now as I have got the exemption now, so obviously my focus next year will be to get a card on the European tour and join Shubhankar and get my roommate back," said Joshi, who was the roommate of Shubhankar when the latter won the Maybank Championship in Malaysia early this year.
The 26-year-old from Bangalore clinched the title with a total of 17-under-271 to equal Shiv Kapur's record of lowest winning total in the history of the tournament.
Joshi didn't have a good start in the final round. An ordinary bunker shot on the first and a bad lie in the rough on the third meant he was two-over after the first three holes but he fought back and sunk a tough downhill 12-footer for a birdie on the 8th hole.
He then followed that up with another birdie on the 10th before striking it rich towards the end with four birdies on the last five holes. It was a seven-foot birdie putt on the 18th that earned him his victory.
"It means the world to me. Winning anyway was great but winning at Delhi Golf club was unbelievable. It gives me a sense of satisfaction," said Joshi, had till now enjoyed his best result on the Asian Tour when he came in tied-second at the 2015 Banshundhara Bangladesh Open.
"I have been close a few times, all of my close friends have won. I told Rahil at the start of the week that I am leaving Bangalore, I hope I can be the Indian Panasonic Open champion and here I am standing with the trophy. Just very happy with the way I played all week.
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