Champion Gaganjeet Bhullar receives the trophy and cheque from Mr. D B Sundara Ramam, Vice President, Raw Materials Division, TATA Steel & Captain – Jamshedpur Golf. The other dignitaries seen in the picture are Mr. Chanakya Chaudhary, Vice President, Corporate Services, TATA Steel (extreme right) and Mr. Uttam Singh Mundy, CEO, PGTI (extreme left)
Offering the highest purse in the history of domestic professional golf , the Rs 3 crore Tata Steel PGTI Tour championship title promised to be hotly contested. And so it turned out as just a stroke separated the winner, runner- up and 3rd placed players at 25, 24 and 23 under par respectively.
Eventually, the in form 35 year old Gaganjeet Bhullar, who just two weeks ago won his 11th Asian Tour title, prevailed with rounds of 64-66-67-66 in the event which sees players play 9 holes each day at Golmuri GC & Beldih Golf Courses in Jamshedpur.
Rahil Gangjee carded rounds of 70-62-65-67 to finish runners-up, one-shot behind Bhullar at 24-under 264 while Angad Cheema of Chandigarh finished third with a total score of 23-under 265.
Bhullar last won the Tata Steel Tour Championship in 2020 and his 11 titles on the Asian Tour are the 3rd highest of any player in history
With the latest two wins, Bhullar now moves to 193rd on the Official World Golf Rankings, making him second highest ranked Indian in the world after Shubhankar Sharma, thus boosting his chances of a spot at the Olympics in Paris 2024.
Yuvraj Singh Sandhu’s nine-under 63 was the day’s best score and helped him finish fourth at 20-under 268.
Om Prakash Chouhan, was crowned the PGTI’s No 1 for 2023 with a record earnings of RS 1.18 crores, as he tied-10th at 15-under 23 in the tournament.
Varun Chopra wins PGTI Emerging Player of the Year honours
24 year-old rookie Varun Chopra, who has been based in the United States won the PGTI Emerging Player of the Year title with season’s earnings of INR 33 lacs, the highest among the rookies, finishing 15th overall in the rankings.
Photo – PGTI