Anura Rohana receiving his winning trophy
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 today for a total of 19-under-269 and record his sixth professional win and second win at the KGA.
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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 holes.
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.
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.
“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.