Tournament host Jeev Milkha Singh endured a disappointing start and a disastrous closing triple-bogey in the inaugural USD 500,000 HSBC India Legends Championship to finish tied for third place at the Jaypee Greens Golf Course here on Sunday.
Even though it was his best finish on the Legends Tour, where he has been playing for the last three years, Jeev was hardly pleased about the final day when he scored a 4-over 76 and tumbled out of contention.
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Despite Jeev missing out, it was a good finish for the host country in the first Legends Tour event on Indian soil. Behind Jeev, playing partner Jyoti Randhawa (68-72-74) was the next best in tied ninth place on 2-under 214. Mukesh Kumar (74-72-70) was T-15 and Amandeep Johl (73-73-73) was T-22.
Though Jeev benefitted from winner Joakim Haeggman’s opening bogey and got into a share of the lead, things changed soon after. Jeev bogeyed three times on the front nine against one birdie and the Swede bounced back strongly with three birdies between second and the fifth holes. When the two came to the turn Haeggman was five ahead.
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Then came another twist in the tale. After four pars, Haeggman stuttered with back-to-back bogeys on the 14th and the 15th. Jeev meanwhile had pars from 10th to the 14th and then birdied the Par-5 15th for a two-shot swing. Suddenly the gap was down from five to two and it stayed like that till the final group to the 18th tee as both Haeggman and Jeev parred the 16th and 17th.
When Haeggman found the fairway on the 18th, Jeev had little option but to go for broke.
Jeev’s gamble of trying to mount pressure on the leader may not have paid off but did not damage his final standing too much. On the 18th, he first found the water off the tee and then blasted his third shot way off line on to the 10th tee box.
A chip back to the 18th green area and another to get on the putting surface meant the 52-year-old was already over par, and a two-putt finish meant a triple-bogey as he dropped from tied second to tied third on the leaderboard.
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Haeggman steadily parred the last three and won by two strokes.
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England’s Andrew Marshall, who finished 40 minutes ahead of the final group, played a super round with 7-under 65 and leapt to 7-under and was sole second.
Jeev dropped from 7-under to 4-under and fell into a tie for third with German Thomas Gogele (68).
Behind Jeev and Jyoti in the top-10, the wily Mukesh scripted a final day’s 2-under 70 to take a share of 15th place with Sweden’s Patrick Sjoland after earlier cards of 73 and 71.
Amandeep had a 1-over 73 for the third straight day to aggregate 219 for the event and was T-22, while Vishal Singh (T-30), Digvijay Singh (53rd), Vijay Kumar (T-54), Sanjay Kumar (T-54), and Harmeet Kahlon (63rd) were further down the leaderboard.
Mukesh, winner of around 125 titles on domestic Tour, had the day’s best round by an Indian, putting three birdies on his card against one dropped shot. “It has been more than 10 years since I last played here but I enjoyed myself. The greens were a little difficult to understand for the first two days but after that I was able to adjust.
“I’m 60 now and don’t have a regular schedule on the PGTI also, so I was definitely satisfied with my performance of 2 under 214 after three rounds. Today I was able to play to my plan and it was good to get a under par total for the tournament.”
Mukesh said he was now looking forward to playing a senior tour at home. “We have made a committee with Amandeep Johl, Digvijay Singh and Vijay Kumar to go into this and want to start the tour by October or November.
“Both Jeev and Jyoti who are playing this senior European Tour have also been very encouraging and Jeev has told us to go ahead with our plans and not to worry about sponsors and sponsorships so I am looking forward to the senior tour with the help and support of the PGTI.”
