By IANS,
Kathmandu : India’s Shamim Khan won the Surya Nepal Masters Open golf title with a sub-par round of 3-under 69 in the final round for a tournament tally of 23-under par 265 at the Gokarna Golf Resort here Saturday.
Sri Lankan Anura Rohana brought in the day’s best card of 6-under 66 to finish second at 276, ahead of a fighting Vijay Kumar who had to be content with third place.
Sujjan Singh was fourth at 280 while Harinder Gupta with a final round of level par 72 finished fifth, thus registering another top ten finish in consecutive weeks after his win in Chandigarh.
Gurbaaz Mann, trying to attack, paid the penalty, registering a 4-over 76 to finish sixth at 283. Deepak Neupane with another brilliant round of 4-under 68 emerged as the best Nepalese professional tying for the seventh place along with Vinod Kumar and Sanjay Kumar at 284. Amardip Malik and Nepalese sensation Shiva Ram Shreshta were tied for the 10th place at 286.
Shamim reduced the event to a no-contest for the top while others fought for second place. A jittery moment was when he began with a bogey reducing the overnight lead to seven. However, with three consecutive birdies in the next three holes, he shut out whatever doubts the handful of spectators had about the pint-sized dynamo.
Playing some solid golf, Shamim saved two more strokes on the par-5 seventh and the par-4 ninth, both which had strategic pin placements.
“I think my front nine was crucial today and I am happy that I sailed through,” said Shamim after the round. “In my last appearance here, I had lost from a winning position. And hence I was careful not to repeat the same mistakes and that was the key,” said the champion.