Bhullar wins Macao Open for eighth Asian Tour title
KEY POINTS
Bhullar lifted the Macao Open for the second time in his career after closing with a three-under-par 68 to complete a wire-to-wire victory on Sunday.
The 29-year-old fired seven birdies against two bogeys and a double bogey to win by three shots with a 13-under-par 271 total for his eighth Asian Tour victory at the Macau Golf and Country Club.
Bhullar took home a winner’s prize purse of $90,000 and became only the third player after Australian Scott Hend (2013 and 2015) and Zhang Lian-wei of China (2001-2002) to win the tournament twice since the tournament was inaugurated in 1998.
Filipino Angelo Que battled to a 69 to share second place with Ajeetesh Sandhu of India, who posted a 70, at the $500,000 Asian Tour event.
Among the other Indians in the fray, Rashid Khan returned with a round of 64 to grab a share of the fifth place at 278. Chiragh Kumar also finished inside the top-20. He was T19 at 284. Shubhankar Sharma was a stroke back in T24. Chikkarangappa was 33rd at 287, Himmat Rai was T58 at 292, Khalin Joshi was T66 at 294 and M Dharma was 70th at 302.
BAD START
The day began on the wrong note with Bhullar dropping a shot on the first hole. “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,” said Bhullar.
“Every time you win wire-towire, 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 summer and we’ve been working 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 (Asian Tour) 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 am playing and stay positive,” said Bhullar.
MACAO:Gaganjeet
Bhullar claimed a wire-towire victory for the third time in his career and second time at the Macao Open. He won the 2012 Macao Open and 2013 Indonesia Open after leading from start to finish. At 29, he is the first player to win eight titles on the Asian Tour before turning 30. He is also the youngest player to achieve the feat on the Asian Tour.
With this victory, Bhullar holds the same number of Asian Tour wins with countrymen Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa.
He is the fourth Indian after SSP Chawrasia, Shiv Kapur and Ajeetesh Sandhu to win on the Asian Tour this season.