Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia, after playing near flawless golf all day, made a charge in his final two holes with a birdie-birdie-finish, which pole-vaulted him to a memorable triumph in the Rs 800,000 HT Pro Golf 2003, at the par-72, Classic Golf Resort in Gurgaon, on Saturday.
Chowrasia's final round five-under 67 handed him a tournament-winning tally of 12-under 276.
The victory earned the Kolkata golfer his third title on the Hero Honda Golf Tour and a prize purse of Rs 1,29,600.
Rahil Gangjee, who started the day with a two-stroke lead over the field, suffered the back-nine blues to slip to a second place finish at nine-under 279.
Yet another Kolkatan, opening round leader Indrajit Bhalotia finished tied third with Lucknow's Vijay Kumar at eight-under 280.
The trio of Rafiq Ali (Kolkata), Gaurav Ghei (Delhi) and Shiv Prakash (Kanpur) were tied fifth at seven-under 281.
Chowrasia couldn't suppress a smile as he walked to the scorer's table to submit his final round card today. The 24-year-old had every reason to smile considering that he actually came from three strokes behind to beat the aggressive Rahil Gangjee to the title.
"I am really thrilled," said Chowrasia. "At the start of the day, I thought a score of four or five under would be required to card a win and so decided to attack the pin right from the word go. This was risky keeping in mind the windy conditions prevalent today, but my gamble paid off," he concluded.
Chowrasia's round was studded with birdies on the third, eighth and ninth on his outward journey. However, he was still two strokes behind Gangjee at this stage. It was only when Gangjee dropped shots on the 11th and 12th that Chowrasia managed to erase the deficit.
"I birdied the 13th and so did Rahil and then we both dropped shots on the 14th. After the 13th, however, I was confident of pulling it off," said the eventual winner.
The 14th hole saw Chowrasia find the bunker with his 3-wood third shot and then miss an eight-foot putt on the green for his only bogey of the day.
Gangjee then went on to drop a shot on the 16th and Chowrasia further widened the one-stroke lead with a superb 3-iron followed by a 15 feet putt on the 17th. A driver, 4-iron culminating in a well-judged 10-feet birdie putt on the 18th drove the final nail into Gangjee's coffin.
"My driving was great this week," said the winner, who is known as 'Chip Putt Chowrasia' for his unbelievable short game. This was Chowrasia's second win on the current Hero Honda Golf Tour season, the first coming at the Hero Honda Open West, Pune short of a month ago.
"My putting let me down," was what a dejected Gangjee had to say.
Gangjee, who looked to be steering to a comfortable win after the front-nine, suddenly lost his feel on the green on his return journey. This cost him bogeys on the 11th, 12th, 14th and 16th. After carding birdies early on in his round on the second and third Gangjee managed only one more on the 13th.
"I was hopeful even when Chowrasia and I were tied after the 14th but the bogey on the 16th did me in. On that hole, I hit my 2-iron tee-shot downwind 300-yards into the water. This was completely unexpected," added the 23-year old, who earned Rs 89,600 for his effort.
Gangjee played to one-over 71 today.
Chirag Kumar wins amateur title: Chirag Kumar won the amateur title at 14-over 302 after shooting a three-over 75 today. Aditya Singh finished second at 304.
Scores (after 72 holes): 276_SSP Chowrasia(66,71,72,67); 279_Rahil Gangjee(69,69,68,73); 280_Vijay Kumar(69,71,70,70), Indrajit Bhalotia(66,71,71,72); 281_Rafiq Ali(70,68,72,71), Gaurav Ghei(67,72,70,72), Shiv Prakash(69,67,72,73); 287_Amritinder Singh(72,72,73,70), Shamim Khan(74,71,71,71), DS Raghuvanshi(68,74,72,73); 288_Yusuf Ali(72,71,72,73), Ashok Kumar(70,70,74,74).
Amateurs: 302_Chirag Kumar(73,76,78,75); 304_Aditya Singh(75,74,77,78).
