Sri Lanka’s N. Thangaraja wins Vizag Open golf championship

Sri Lanka’s N. Thangaraja had a dream closing spherical of six-under 66, the day’s finest rating, to outplay all his rivals and emerge champion within the Rs 1 crore Vizag Open golf championship on the East Level Golf Membership right here on Saturday.

For the 42-year-old Thangaraja (71-73-70-66, who was in a single day tied ninth and trailing the lead by a large seven pictures, the five-year lengthy await a title has lastly ended.

It was a sensational and error-free final spherical to triumph by one stroke at a complete of eight-under 280 by the Sri Lankan which separated him from the remainder of the contenders.

Chandigarh’s Akshay Sharma (67-68-73-73) completed runner-up at seven-under 281 because of his fourth spherical of 73.

The quartet of Samarth Dwivedi (68), Om Prakash Chouhan (69), Saarthak Chhibber (70) and Harendra Gupta (69), took tied-third place at six-under 282.

Thanga, as he’s popularly identified, bagged the profitable cheque price Rs. 15 lakhs to take an enormous stride from twenty fourth to sixth place within the TATA Metal PGTI Rankings and develop into the eleventh winner on the PGTI this season in as many occasions.

Thangaraja, taking part in three teams forward of the chief group, made an early cost with lengthy birdie conversions on the second and fourth holes and an awesome strategy to arrange a tap-in birdie on the fifth. He added one other birdie on the par-5 seventh after discovering the inexperienced in two pictures.

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After making the flip at four-under for the day, Thanga made additional inroads on the back-nine. His tee shot on the par-3 eleventh lipped out of the opening however handed him a birdie and an correct strategy on the fifteenth left him a three-footer for his sixth and final birdie of the day.

It was additionally his general sixth skilled win (with two wins approaching the Sri Lankan Tour). The 42-year-old ever-smiling Thanga will now be heading to Hangzhou, China, to signify his nation on the Asian Video games.

“I used to be simply focusing by myself recreation right now. I used to be in large hitting type and landed the ball near the opening on many events. Regardless of the 5 lipped-out putts, I had an honest day with the putter. I assumed a rating of seven to eight beneath may win me the title, in order that was foremost on my thoughts after I had an awesome front-nine,” Thanga mentioned even whereas thanking his buddy and fellow skilled C. Muniyappa for being his club-fitter.

Visakhapatnam’s Rahman Mehboob Shorif ended the week in tied forty ninth place at 12-over 300.