Nakajima triumphs; finalhole eagle gives Ahlawat tied second spot
Just minutes before the coronation of Keita Nakajima as the new $2.25million Hero Indian Open winner, Veer Ahlawat finished oneunder 71 with a stunning finalhole eagle to gatecrash into the tied second spot on his home course here.
Soon, the “nervous” Japanese signed off with an unusual bogeybogeybogey finish for a oneover 73 — his worst card of the week — that was good enough to give him a fourshot victory at the DLF Golf and Country Club here.
For the record, Nakajima’s record winningscore of 17under 271 was worth $382,500. The trio of Ahlawat, Sweden’s Sebastian Soderberg and USA’s Johannes Veerman tallied 275 and received $167,250 each.
After leading the field by a whopping nine shots at times on Sunday and assuming the title was his for the asking, Nakajima played aggressively on the backnine. He made a few pars but went on to doublebogey the 14th hole — a par4 where he dropped a shot in three previous rounds — and birdied the next before the bogeyspree.
For Nakajima, the maiden DP World Tour title came on the 11th appearance in his ‘rookie’ season on the Tour. Before turning professional in 2022, Nakajima was the World’s top amateur for 87 weeks during which he surpassed Jon Rahm’s record of 60 weeks.
Any hope of a close finish evaporated soon on Sunday. Armed with a fourshot cushion, Nakajima birdied the first, fourth and sixth holes to move to 21. Concurrently, Nakajima’s playing partners Gavin Green and Romain Langasque lost their way.
But Soderberg and Veerman, placed 15th and 16th after three rounds, made a charge. Soderberg shot six birdies during the bogeyfree 17 holes before finishing with a bogey to end at 67.
Veerman, two shots behind Soderman before reaching the 18th tee, birdied the final hole and gained from the bogey from Soderberg to be jointsecond before Ahlawat joined them.
The leading scores: 271: Keita Nakajima (Jpn) (65, 65, 68, 73);
275: Veer Ahlawat (69, 66, 69, 71), Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) (71, 67, 70, 67), Johannes Veerman (USA) (70, 65, 73, 67); 276: Gavin Green (Mal) (72, 66, 64, 74), Romain Lagasque (Fra) (66, 66 70, 74), Matteo Manassero (Ita) (65, 68, 70, 73), Ko Jeong Weon (Fra) (67, 67, 69, 73).
Other Indians: 279: Manu Gandas (73, 65, 70, 71); 280: Karandeep Kochhar (68, 70, 73, 69); 284: Shubhankar Sharma (70, 70, 72, 72); 288: Aman Raj (68, 68, 74, 78); 291: Jairaj Singh Sandhu (72, 70, 78, 71), Gaganjeet Singh Bhullar (70, 69, 80, 72);
292: Rashid Khan (71, 69, 74, 78).