Kunal registers 3–stroke victory at Golden Greens

Gurgaon: Kunal Bhasin of Australia registered an emphatic three-stroke victory at the PGTI Players Championship at the Golden Greens Golf & Country Club in Gurgaon after he shot a one-under-71 in the final round on Friday. Bhasin ended up with a total score of 11-under-277 to bag his second professional title. Abhinav Lohan of Faridabad finished as the runner-up at eight-under-280.

Kunal Bhasin (67-72-67-71), the overnight joint leader, had a terrific start in round four as he birdied the second and third. Kunal chipped it to within four feet on the second and sank a 14-feet putt on the third. The 33-year-old Mumbai-based professional dropped his first stroke of the day when he bogeyed the 12th after finding the rough with his second shot.

Bhasin, who hails from Brisbane in Queensland, Australia, hit a tremendous drive into the wind and followed that up with a 22-feet conversion for birdie on the 16th that helped him build a comfortable four-stroke lead. Kunal’s bogey on the 17th did not cause much trouble to him as he still finished three strokes clear of the rest of the field.

“This is a very satisfying win. I played solid and stayed calm throughout the day. I have fared better on the back-nine this week. Therefore, I told myself that I must play under-par on the front-nine since I was confident of doing well on the back-nine. The two birdies early on gave me the ideal start. The birdie on the 16th came at a very important time as it provided me with a good cushion at the top,” said Bhasin, who is an Asian Tour regular.

Bhasin has now moved up to 11th place on the 2012 Rolex Rankings.

Abhinav Lohan (70-68-69-73) made a birdie and two bogeys in his final round of 73 to finish second. Lohan, a silver-medalist at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, thus posted his best finish on the PGTI since turning professional in early 2011.

Gaurav Pratap Singh of Noida and Delhi’s Manav Jaini were joint third at seven-under-281.

Mukesh Kumar of Mhow, R Murthy of Bangalore and Sri Lanka’s Mithun Perera shared fifth place at five-under-283.

The PGTI Players Championship at the Golden Greens Golf & Country Club will be telecast on Ten Golf.