By V. Krishnaswamy, IANS
Singapore : Argentine Angel Cabrera kept his best shot for very last and he made it count, as he edged out Fijian Vijay Singh by one shot to win the $4 million Barclay’s Singapore Open at the Sentosa Golf Club Sunday.
Needing a birdie to win after Vijay Singh had, for the first time in the day, tied the scores with a birdie on the 18th playing in the group ahead of him, Cabrera went for a big second shot that set him up for an eagle on the par-five finishing hole.
Cabrera’s perfect second shot landed 20 feet from the pin and his excellent first putt left him with just a six-inch tap-in for birdie that landed him the title and a winner’s cheque of $634,000.
After taking charge of the tournament with a blistering eight-under 64 in the second round, the Argentine never trailed and only for a few minutes before he tapped in his birdie putt did he share the lead with the Fijian.
Vijay Singh, who burnt up the front nine of the course with three birdies and eagle in the final round, picked up $434,000, while two-time defending champion Adam Scott of Australia pocketed $244,000 for his third place finish.
Cabrera (72) totalled eight-under 276 and Vijay was left stranded at seven-under 277 despite a four-under 67, Sunday’s only sub-par score and four better than the next best from three players including Scott (71), a distant third at three-under 281.
India’s Shiv Kapur (74), who ran into three successive bogeys on the back nine, completed a second successive top 10 finish at the Singapore Open – he was fifth last year – having tied for eighth place with Kiwi Mark Brown (72) and Australian Kane Webber (72) at two-over 286.
“I was hoping to be bit better and try for top three which could have got me into the HSBC Champions next week, but still to finish in the top 10 of an event and going head to head with guys like Angel Cabrera, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, K.J. Choi, Adam Scott and others is indeed pleasing,” said Kapur, who earned $89,066 for the week.
Of the other Indians, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (74) was tied 23rd at eight-over 292, Gurbaaz Mann (77) and Gaurav Ghei (76) were tied 47th at 12-over 296 and Arjun Singh (79) was tied 68th at 18-over 302.
Chowrasia went past $100,000 earnings for the year with his cheque of $40,800.
Only five players finished with sub-par scores for the week.