Bengaluru, Karnataka, 09-12-2018
Anura Rohana drives home the advantage, romps to three-shot victory
Sri Lankan Anura Rohana drove home the advantage in the final round at the Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) course on Sunday to register a comfortable three-shot victory at the PGTI’s Indo-MIM Presents Bengaluru Open Golf Championship 2018 Powered By Britannia, GoAir and Principal Partner Karnataka Tourism.
The 45-year-old Rohana struck a steady one-under-71 in the last round to end up with a total of 19-under-269 and thus record his sixth professional win and second win at the KGA.
Patna’s Aman Raj, who came up with the fourth round’s best score of six-under-66, took second place at 16-under-272 at the Rs. 60 lakh event.
Anura Rohana (67-64-67-71), the third round leader by five shots, built on his massive advantage early in the day with a hat-trick of birdies on the third, fourth and fifth where he made conversions from a range of seven to 15 feet.
When Anura capitalized on the par-5 11th with another birdie, he looked certain to seal the title as his lead stood at six shots. A couple of poor shots, one off the tee and the other an approach, resulted in a bogey and a double bogey for him on the 13th and 16th respectively.
However, the errors didn’t affect the final outcome of the tournament as Rohana still romped to victory with an impressive margin. Anura, a Colombo-resident, took home the winning cheque worth Rs. 9,69,900 which helped him climb from 21st place to 10th position in the 2018 PGTI Order of Merit.
Rohana, who last won at the KGA in 2011, said, “I just played my own game today and didn’t worry too much about the other contenders. I knew with an overnight five-shot lead, all I needed to do was put my head down and repeat what I had done over the last two days.
“After being four-under through 11, I knew I had it in the bag and was quite relaxed on the course. The following bogey and double-bogey didn’t really affect me as none of my rivals really made a serious charge on the back-nine.
“Those two bogey-free rounds on day two and three actually set up the tournament for me. My putting was the best aspect of my game this week that facilitated the low scores.
“My next aim now is to achieve my best ever rank on the PGTI Order of Merit. I was fourth last year. I want to finish higher than that this year.
“It’s great that all three of us from Sri Lanka, Mithun Perera, N Thangaraja and myself, have won on the PGTI this year. We have healthy competition amongst us and keep pushing each other to perform better.”
Aman Raj (68-67-71-66), a winner on the PGTI this year, carded a bogey-free 66 on day four to emerge runner-up. He finished three shots behind the winner.
Seventeen-year-old Aadil Bedi (69) of Chandigarh claimed third place, his best finish as a professional so far, at 15-under-273.
M Dharma had the best result among the Bengaluru golfers. He secured tied fourth place at 14-under-274 along with Mukesh Kumar of Mhow.
Last year’s champion Udayan Mane of Ahmedabad and Bengaluru’s C Muniyappa took a share of sixth place at 13-under-275.
Bengaluru’s Aryan Roopa Anand, the only amateur to make the cut, ended the tournament in tied 42nd place at two-over-290.
About PGTI:
Formed in 2006, Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) is the recognised official body of professional golf in India. PGTI's objective is to promote professional golf in the country, as well as to give players an opportunity to be involved in the decision making on all aspects of the game. Headed by Mr. Kapil Dev (President), PGTI's governing body comprises leading Indian golf professionals. PGTI currently has over 300 members.
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