NEW DELHI: India’s Shiv Kapur finally got to walk up the 18th fairway to complete his lifelong dream of winning a professional title at the Delhi Golf Club. Handing in a final round card of four-under 68 and a total of 17-under 271, Kapur won the Panasonic Open India 2017. He became the sixth Indian in seven editions to win the event.
It was his third Asian Tour win, the second this year and the first at DGC, his homeclub.
The Indian domination of the event was overwhelming. As Kapur shot his fourth straight round in 60s to win by three shots, a big bunch of seven players, six of them Indian, were tied for second at 14-under. They were Chiragh Kumar (64), Ajeetesh Sandhu (65), Karandeep Kochar (66), SSP Chawrasia (69), Om Prakash Chouhan (69), Sudhir Sharma (69) and Paul Peterson (71) who were all tied for second. Shamim Khan (72) and Honey Baisoya (68) were Tied for ninth, as nine Indians figured in the Top-10.
Kapur’s win also took him to the top of the Panasonic Open Swing, which spans over five tournaments and this was the second tournament. The first was Thailand Open, where Kapur was second and the Panasonic Open India was the second one. Two more events in Malaysia and Indonesia will follow and the final one will be in Japan in 2018.
On Sunday, in front of his three-month daughter Veda, wife Maya and his parents and a whole lot of friends at DGC, Kapur won his second title of the year, the third Asian Tour and the fifth international title.
The title race was evenly poised at the turn with only a single shot separating the leaders at the top of the leaderboard. But it was Kapur who eventually broke away from the chasing pack when he fired four birdies on holes 11, 12, 14 and 15 to sign off with a winning total of 17-under-par 271.
American Paul Peterson’s chase for his first Asian Tour title fell short after he marked his card with three birdies and two bogeys to fall off the pace.
Peterson had to settle for a share of second place with six other players that included compatriots SSP Chawrasia and Ajeetesh Sandhu at the $400,000 event.
