NAIROBI
32-year-old European Tour winner Gaganjeet Bhullar shot rounds of 66-72-69-65 (12-under 272) to finish tied-16th at the US$ 1.2mn Magical Kenya Open (Mar. 18th-21st), one week after a solid tied-2nd finish at the US$ 1.5mn Qatar Masters from March 11th-14th.
Bhullar added US$ 14,000 (₹10 lakhs) to his 2021 earnings and 1.75 ranking points on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) to move to 314th from 324th earlier, making him the second-best ranked Indian after Udayan Mane at 275th.
Bhullar retains his 43rd position on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai Rankings, where the top-60 finishers will get to play the tour finale – US$ 9mn DP World Tour Championship in November.
Other Indians in the field included multiple European Tour title holders – Shubhankar Sharma and SSP Chawrasia, who both missed cuts with their 73-70 and 74-72 scores.
With the sudden reshuffling on the OWGR, the race for the Olympics seats have become even more interesting, Udayan on the front seat, followed by Gaganjeet Bhullar and Chikkarangappa S.
Rashid Khan, who was leading the way, moves to 326th from 311th, making him fourth-best ranked player now.
With no further announcements of the subsequent events on the domestic tour and June 21st being the cut-off date, it is exciting to watch how it unfolds for the Indian contingent.