India's Bhullar clinches commanding win in Macau
Hong Kong - India's Gaganjeet Bhullar held his nerve to complete a wire-to-wire victory and lift his eighth Asian Tour title at the Macau Open on Sunday.
Bhullar had seen his four-shot lead reduced to one in round three but on Sunday, he drained five birdies on the front nine and won by three shots despite a nerve-jangling double bogey on 16.
The 29-year-old fired rounds of 64, 65, 74 and 68 for an aggregate score of 13-under 271, lifting his first Asian Tour trophy of the year.
Bhullar's fellow Indian Ajeetesh Sandhu and Filipino Angelo Que shared second place at par-71 Macau Golf and Country Club, while Taiwan's Hung Chien-Yao was alone in fourth.
Sandhu was gunning for his third title in a row after he claimed his maiden Asian tour victory in Taiwan this month and triumphed on the Japan Challenge Tour a week later.
Bhullar, the 2012 champion in Macau, bogeyed his opening hole on Sunday before he stormed ahead with birdies on two, three, four, seven and nine to turn in 31.
He also birdied 13 but dropped a shot on the next and picked up his double on 16, before finishing in style with his sixth birdie of the day in front of the galleries on 18.
I was absolutely blank after the bogey on the first hole. After that I just stuck to my plan and took my opportunities. Honestly it got simple after the bogey. I hit the ball well and made my putts. It was a tough start to the day but the last four days have been really hard. This is probably the only tournament where I’ve played in such windy conditions in all four rounds.
Bhullar said: " Every time you win wire-to-wire on the Asian Tour, you learn a lot. I want to grow as a player and you learn so much from winning and even losing. I’m glad that this is my eighth Asian Tour title and I’ve got so many more events to play on the Asian Tour. The next goal is to start thinking and preparing on the next victory.
I started working with my coach, Noah Montgomery, in the summer and we’ve been working really hard on my game. He changed a few technical aspects in my swing and that’s really helped me. Overall the attitude and my point of view towards the game and winning have changed. It has been my childhood dream to win the Order of Merit.
I’ve seen my heroes Arjun (Atwal), Jyoti (Randhawa) and Jeev (Milkha Singh) win the Order of Merit. I would love to do the same and the goal for the rest of the season is to play like how I’m playing and stay in the positive mood."
