Gaganjeet Bhullar records 10th PGTI win at TATA Steel Tour Championship 2020
Bhullar took home the winning cheque worth Rs. 24,24,750 and is expected to see his world ranking improve.
Veteran golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar bagged his 10th Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) title after a hard-fought win at the TATA Steel Tour Championship 2020 in Jamshedpur on Sunday.
Bhullar took home the winning cheque worth Rs. 24,24,750 and is expected to see his world ranking improve (currently 807), having earned five Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points for his win on Sunday.
Bhullar, the newly crowned champion, finished with a four-under-68 on the final day with a total of 24-under-264 for the week ahead of Chikkarangappa who finished his fourth round of 68 moved his total to 22-under-266 at the Rs.1.5 crore event.
The final round saw stiff contest between Kapurthala’s Bhullar, Bengalureans Chikkarangappa and Khalin Joshi, Kolkata’s SSP Chawrasia and Noida’s Amardeep Malik, with all of them leading the tournament at some stage during the day.
After finishing as the runner-up, Chikkarangappa rose from 11th to the second position on the PGTI Order of Merit.
Khalin Joshi (69) finished third at 21-under-267, Kolkata’s Rahil Gangjee, who fired the day’s best score of 67, took tied 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.
The 32-year-old Bhullar, who holds the Indian record of nine wins on the Asian Tour, brought about all his experience to land the title. Bhullar, part of the 2006 Asian Games silver medal-winning Indian team, came through flying despite dropping five shots (three bogeys and a double-bogey) in the final round.
“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," Bhullar said.
“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," he added.