Pattaya, Thailand, 01-07-2018

Gaganjeet Bhullar finishes runner-up at the Queen's Cup

India's Gaganjeet Bhullar, who was the joint third round leader by one shot at the Queen's Cup, dropped to second place in the final round of the Asian Tour event after scoring a sedate even-par-71.

Bhullar (68-65-65-71), chasing an Indian record of nine Asian Tour titles, couldn't make inroads on the final day as he made three birdies and three bogeys to finish four shots behind eventual winner Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand.

Gaganjeet, who had also finished joint runner-up at the Maekyung Open in Korea earlier this year, didn't have the desired start as he was one-over through the front-nine on Sunday.

Bhullar then only managed a one-under on the back-nine, even as Jazz, the other joint overnight leader, raced ahead with a final round of four-under-67 which included five consecutive birdies from the 10th to the 14th.

Gaganjeet said, "It wasn’t easy out there. It was definitely one of the toughest days this week. I didn’t get off to a good start. I made a few silly mistakes as well. But I finished strong, had two good par-saves on 16 and 17 and a good up and down for birdie on the last to finish solo second.

"It’s still a good result for me. I am happy to be able to earn some world ranking points this week. It could have been better but Jazz played really well today. His five birdies in-a-row pretty much changed the whole scenario.

"Congratulations to him. I played well but it just didn’t click today. I am looking forward to playing well in the next few tournaments in Sarawak and Indonesia."

Khalin Joshi (68) was the second Indian in the top-20 as he claimed tied 13th place at 10-under-274. 

Chikkarangappa and Rashid Khan were both joint 21st with totals of eight-under-276. 

Among the other Indians, Honey Baisoya was tied 30th at seven-under-277, Viraj Madappa was tied 46th at three-under-281 and Himmat Rai was tied 60th at one-over-285.

Elsewhere, at the PGA Tour's Quicken Loans National, Anirban Lahiri's third round five-under-65 propelled him 41 places to tied 25th at four-under-206.

At the European Tour's HNA Open De France, Shubhankar Sharma of India claimed tied 27th place at even-par-284 after his final round of three-under-68.