Final day of Jeev Milkha Invitational: With wife and daughter cheering, Bhullar picks up winner’s trophy
Continuing his fine form in the tournament, Kapurthala golfer and 11-time international winner Gaganjeet Bhullar emerged as the champion with a final round of one-under-71 and an overall score of 15-under-273 in the Jeev Milkha Invitational on Sunday.
The 34-year-old, who was the overnight leader, kept his cool and converted a 12-feet putt shot to a birdie to lift the champions trophy with a one-shot win over Chandigarh’s Karandeep Kochhar.
Bhullar had a bumpy start to the day as he bogeyed twice on the front-nine but soon gathered momentum by making a birdie each on the 11th and 12th hole.
Kochhar was running close alongside Bhullar. On the 15th hole, Bhullar missed a short putt, giving Kochhar to potentially take the lead. But when Kochhar made a birdie each on the 16th and 17th hole to be tied with Bhullar, the Kapurthala golfer sank a birdie on the 18th hole while Kochhar could only make a par, handing Bhullar the win.
While the last four editions of the tournament had seen the winner being decided on the basis of play-off, Bhullar’s birdie meant that there was a winner after the end of the regulation round. “I played my back-nine like a champion today. I did have a shaky start, but my past experience as a golfer and my knowledge of this course together came in handy today. I kept telling myself to not go for the result but play one shot at a time and I think that worked things my way. The birdie on the 11th hole, my first today, was probably the turning point in my round. My second birdie on the 16th got me motivated for the final two holes. My experience of the course helped me visualise my shots on the final hole in advance and that’s why sinking in the 12-feet long putt on the final hole was not difficult,” said Bhullar, who was cheered by his wife Naureen and daughter Farida as he received the winning trophy and a cheque of Rs 22.5 lakh.
Kochhar started with confidence as he sank a birdie on the second hole before he made a bogey on the third hole. Kochhar had the chance to force the play-off with Bhullar but missed his birdie-putt on the last hole to finish at the second spot. Kochhar, who won the National Games title earlier this month, climbed six places and jumped to the fourth spot in the PGTI order of merit with the second-place finish on Sunday as he took home a cheque of Rs 15 lakh.
2018 winner Chikkarangappa carded a par round score of 72 to finish tied third along with Chandigarh golfer Akshay Sharma, who carded a final round score of five-under-67. Both the golfers won prize money of Rs 8.24 lakh. Om Prakash Chouhan, who shot the best score in the final round with a score of five-under-67, finished tied fifth with Bangladesh’s Jamal Hossain and Delhi’s Shamim Khan with identical scores of 12-under-265.
