Shubhankar Sharma overshadowed the field on the final day of the PGTI Players Championship at the Eagleton Golf Resort in Bengaluru on Friday.
Shubhankar Sharma overshadowed the field on the final day of the PGTI Players Championship at the Eagleton Golf Resort in Bengaluru on Friday. The teenager from the DLF Golf & Country Club, Gurgaon, drove home an overnight three-shot advantage with a seven-under-65 in the final round to be crowned champion with a total score of 24-under-264, a massive six shots ahead of the rest of the field.
Sri Lankan Anura Rohana was the runner-up at 18-under-270 after a final round of 68 at the Rs 30 lakh event.
Shubhankar (65-70-64-65) carried forward his form from Bangladesh last week where he had recorded his career-best Asian Tour finish of third with a sparkling performance at Eagleton.
Shubhankar became the youngest winner on the PGTI at age 17 when he won his maiden title in Kochi two years back.
The Asian Tour rookie made an early dent on the leaderboard with a hat-trick of birdies from the second to the fourth. With no competition in sight, Shubhankar looked on course for an easy win courtesy three more birdies on the next six holes.
Shubhankar then had the title in the bag after a crucial par-save from 10 feet on the 14th even as his nearest competitors, Rohana and Chandigarh’s Sujjan Singh, were a distant five shots and eight shots behind respectively.
Sharma finally closed the week with a birdie on the 18th to register his second professional win in emphatic fashion.
Shubhankar, who shot the day’s best for the second day in succession, took home a winner’s cheque worth Rs 4,50,000 at the season’s second event to be placed fourth in the Rolex Ranking 2016. Kolkata’s Feroz Ali Mollah, the winner of the season-opener last week, continues to lead the money list with earnings of Rs 9,44,260 so far. Mollah was tied 15th at Eagleton.
Rohana (68-68-66-68) and Sujjan Singh (68-65-70-68) never really threatened the leader as they finished on 18-under-270 and 17-under-271 respectively.
Bengaluru’s Kanishk Sinha finished as the best amateur. He was tied 41st at one-over-289.
