India’s Shubham Jaglan has only been a professional golfer for less than half a year, but he’s put himself in a strong position to enjoy a full playing schedule on the Asian Tour in 2026 by taking the second-round lead at the Final Stage of the Tour’s Qualifying School today.

Jaglan, who turned professional in July after graduating from the University of South Florida, shot a five-under-par 66 on the C&D nines at Lake View Resort & Golf Club, to top the leaderboard on nine-under.

Chinese-Taipei’s Liu Yung-hua is in second place one back after carding a 69, on the same layout as Jaglan, along with Canadian Henry Hyoun Ho Lee – who returned a 65 on the other course used this week, the A&B.

Australian Will Florimo, the joint first-round leader from Australia, is in a big group of players another stroke behind after carding a 71. Florimo was in the driver’s seat for most of the day, playing A&B, but made bogey on 16 and a double on the last.

Florimo shares third with Thailand’s Itthipat Buranatanyarat (65), Koreans Minchan Kim (66), an amateur, and Inhoi Hur (67), plus China’s Lin Yuxin (67), and Mexico’s Roberto Lebrija (69).

Shubham Jaglan.

Michael Pearce who shared the opening round lead with his countryman Florimo, returned a 72 and is an additional shot back.

Jaglan carded a 67 yesterday and was equally as confident today, comfortably handling the pressure of Qualifying School – which will see the top 35 on Sunday earn their cards for next season.

“I played awesome,” said the 21-year-old from New Delhi.

“I’ve been putting really well. If I count the feet of putts I made – I think tour average is like 70-80, me and my coach keep a track of that – and I’ve had over 100 feet of putts both days.”

He made his professional debut in July, surviving the cut at the Bromont Open on the PGA Tour Americas in Canada. He has continued to build on that and finished second at the Trident Open, after losing in a play-off, on the Professional Golf Tour of India, just last month.

“I’m reading my lines really well. I think I did a much better job of not getting angry. I think I struggled with that a little bit yesterday and let a few silly shots get away,” he added.

“It was playing tougher, we played CD, and it was playing a little tougher, but I managed to do a great job of staying present and just focusing on one shot at a time.”

He was bogey free on the front side, making birdies on three, seven and eight. Another birdie followed on 12 before he dropped his only shot of the day on 14. Birdies on 15 and 17 saw him move in front with little time to spare.

Will Florimo. 

Liu is here this week having finished 84^th on the Asian Tour Order of Merit – which sees the top 65 keep their cards for next year.

He won on the Asian Development Tour in 2024, at the BNI Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament, which helped him finish in the top 10 of the ADT Order of Merit, to earn his card for the main tour this year. It’s been a poor season though, as he missed 11 cuts from 16 starts.

He said: “I just tried to go for a high GIR percentage, and it worked well. Tee shots were off but second shots good and I hit a lot of greens.”

After yesterday’s fine 64 and off the back of an excellent season on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia – he is fourth on their Order of Merit – Florimo looked to be running away with it on the front nine. He was 11-under for the tournament after going out in three under. However, the wheels came off on the second half, starting with bogeys on 13 and 14 before his disappointing finish.

“I started really nicely and, yeah, I mean, over a week like this, you’re gonna have times where the golf swing doesn’t feel like it should,” he said.

“Got a bit of a bad break on 18, I thought I hit a good tee shot and it rolled down into the hazard against a rock. And I probably got a bit greedy out of there and took too many. But overall, I mean, if you told me I’d be seven under through two rounds, I’d be fine with that. So got to look at it that way, and there’s still three rounds of golf.”

Itthipat Buranatanyarat.

A cut was made today with the top 140 and ties making it into the next two rounds. A total of 144 players made it through after the cut was made at three over.

After 72 holes the leading 70 players and ties, will play the final round on Sunday.

Pictures by Jason Butler/Asian Tour.