Gaganjeet Bhullar saw it home with a hard-fought four-under-68 despite a bumpy ride on the final day of the Tata Steel Tour Championship on Sunday.
Bhullar, who totalled an outstanding 24-under-264 for the week, thus collected his 10th trophy on the PGTI and first in nine years on the tour.
The final round of the Rs 1.5 crore event was witness to an absorbing contest as Kapurthala’s Bhullar, Bengaluru-eans Chikkarangappa and Khalin Joshi, Calcutta’s SSP Chawrasia and Noida’s Amardeep Malik were all in the lead or joint lead at different stages.
Chikkarangappa ended the week as the runner-up after his fourth round of 68 moved his total to 22-under-266. Chikka’s second place finish lifted him from 11th to second position in the PGTI Order of Merit.
Khalin Joshi (69) finished third at 21-under-267, Calcutta’s Rahil Gangjee, who fired the day’s best score of 67, was tied at fourth place at 20-under-268 along with SSP Chawrasia (72). Amardeep Malik (73), the joint third round leader along with Bhullar and Chawrasia, closed the week in sixth place at 19-under-269.
Bhullar said, “Honestly, I was not at all expecting to win this week. This week the first goal for me was to make the cut. But I kept gaining momentum with each passing round and played four solid rounds where my putting was very consistent.
“I did shoot a nine-under on day two but it was the third round of 64 that really put me in contention. That’s when I knew that I had a really good chance to win. I was aware of the fact that whenever I have been in contention in recent times, I have gone on to win.
On Sunday, the leading 27 players out of 53 played their first nine holes at Golmuri and second nine holes at Beldih. The remaining 26 players played at Beldih first and then Golmuri.
The 32-year-old Gaganjeet Bhullar (69-63-64-68), a winner of 10 international titles with victories on both the European Tour and Asian Tour, brought all his experience into play by coming through despite dropping five shots (three bogeys and a double-bogey) in the final round.
Gaganjeet, who holds the Indian record of nine wins on the Asian Tour, consolidated his position at the top with a flurry of early birdies on the first, third and fourth holes thanks to his accurate iron and wedge shots. Bhullar’s troubles began on the fifth where he double-bogeyed after finding the hazard. He missed an up and down on the next hole to drop another shot.
Gaganjeet, a part of the Indian team that won the silver medal at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, pulled one stroke back with a 15-feet birdie conversion on the eighth before conceding another bogey on the 11th. The broad-built six-footer from Punjab then added two more birdies on the 12th and 13th before finding trouble once again on the 15th where he landed in the trees and as a result made bogey.
Bhullar was two behind Chikka and Joshi after 15 holes but the match turned on its head when Gaganjeet chipped-in for eagle on the 16th and sank a 20-footer for birdie on the 17th. As Chikka and Joshi stumbled on the 18th with a bogey and double-bogey respectively, Bhullar went on to seal the title with a two-shot margin after a par on the final hole.
Gaganjeet took home the winning cheque worth Rs. 24,24,750 and is now likely to make major gains in the world ranking from his current 807th position having earned five Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points for his win on Sunday.
Bhullar said, “I believed in myself on the final day despite the up and downs during the round. The eagle and birdie on the final stretch came just at the right time for me. It’s been great being back on the PGTI and registering my first win on the tour since my 2011 victory in Chandigarh.
“I played two events on the PGTI this month and the competition has been very intense which is a great sign of things to come for Indian golf. I would like to thank Tata Steel for staging this fabulous event and supporting Indian golf and the PGTI even in such difficult times.”
While runner-up Chikka mixed seven birdies with three bogeys during his 68, third-placed Khalin sank five birdies at the expense of a double-bogey for his 69.
Among the other prominent names, Anirban Lahiri (68) took 11th place at 14-under-274, Chandigarh’s Karandeep Kochhar (72), who continues to lead the PGTI Order of Merit, finished 14th at 12-under-276, Shiv Kapur (69) was tied 16th at 10-under-278 and Jyoti Randhawa (81) was tied 30th at five-under-283.
