Chachoengsao, Thailand, 10-11-2019
Shiv Kapur secures season-best tied second finish at Thailand Open, SSP Chawrasia takes tied sixth; Shubhankar Sharma's brilliant last round of 64 gives him a tied seventh finish in Turkey
India’s Shiv Kapur secured a season-best tied second finish at the Thailand Open on Sunday after losing out in a playoff to American John Catlin at the Thai Country Club.
Kapur, who shot a top-class final round of six-under-65, went into the playoff with Catlin and local hotshot Pavit Tangkamolprasert after the three golfers were tied at the top at 11-under-273 at the end of regulation play at the US$300,000 event.
The sudden death playoff, which was held on the par-4, 466-yard 18th hole, saw Catlin finding the fairway on the left side with his tee shot while Kapur and Pavit hit into the left and right rough respectively.
Kapur sent his second shot through the trees and onto the green but left himself a long birdie putt from about 80 feet which he did not manage to convert. Pavit’s second shot found the left bunker, where he hit a 35-yard shot from there to about 12-feet.
Catlin secured victory after his spectacular approach on the first playoff hole yielded a birdie.
Kapur, a four-time winner on the Asian Tour, had soared with a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie run from the 13th before returning two straight pars on the 17th and 18th. He holed out for eagle on the par-five 14th but three-putted on the 17th.
Shiv Kapur has had success at the Thai Country Club in the past, winning the 2005 Volvo Masters of Asia and finishing tied second at the Thailand Open in 2017. His result this week pushed him up from 572 to 395 in the world rankings.
Kapur said, "It was a good round. No fireworks early on, just started pretty steady on the front. I actually made a pretty soft bogey on the ninth, that was little disappointing and I got to the 10th and said to my coach who’s on the bag this week, I said let’s just start firing at some flags.
"I went on to make birdie on 10 and 11 and then got stuck in a divot on 12 and made bogey there. But then after that I made a really good birdie out of the rough on 13. And on 14 I had a wedge in my hands and holed it, and you know not until I got to, when I holed that putt on 15 that I started thinking, oh now I have a chance to go for the title in this tournament.
"At that point I was just trying to keep making birdies and go as low as I can. And then once I got to the 16th it looked like I had a good chance at it. A little disappointing to have three putted 17, but you know I hit two really good shots, had a great second shot to the back of the green. I didn’t think I had a bad putt but it was so quick coming down.
"I was just trying to shoot as low as I can at that stage and I came close to making birdie on the 18th as well. I gave it a good run. I had a fantastic back nine. This course has always been very kind to me. It’s just one of the courses that suits my eyes and it’s always good to come to a course where you had some success before.
"Lots of positive vibes here. Like I mentioned earlier, I had a lacklustre season prior to this week so this result will give me a lot of confidence heading into the remainder of the season. It’s a great boost for sure."
SSP Chawrasia came up with a last round of 72 to finish tied sixth at nine-under-275.
Ajeetesh Sandhu took a share of 11th place at seven-under-277 while Jyoti Randhawa was a further shot back in tied 14th.
Elsewhere, at the European Tour's Turkish Airlines Open in Antalya, Shubhankar Sharma fired a brilliant eight-under-64 in round four to post a commendable tied seventh finish at 18-under-270. Sharma's third top-10 of the season lifted him from 281 to 237 in the world rankings.
Source: Asian Tour
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