Shiv Kapur and Viraj Madappa carded 69 and 66 respectively in the final round to end with a creditable top-10 at the season-ending BNI Indonesian Masters on Sunday.
Kapur’s fine start with three birdies in first five holes did not last. Yet, he finished with a birdie on 18th, which lifted him to 11-under and sole sixth position. The 21-year-old Viraj had a great day in office as he produced a sizzling six-under 66 to finish tied ninth.
Small-built Poom Saksansin (68 and 20-under) won the event for the second time in three years, while leading a 1-2-3 for the Thais.
READ: Shiv Kapur moves to tied-eighth
Among other Indians, Anirban Lahiri (72) and SSP Chawrasia (68) were Tied-20th.
Rahil Gangjee, six-under through 14, dropped four shots in last three holes for a 70 and from being Top-10 he ended T-24th. Khalin Joshi (68) was T-35th, S Chikkarangappa (69) was T-45th and M Dharma (71) was T-51st.
Poom, who also plays in Japan, started the day three shots clear of the 2016 Open winner, Henrik Stenson.
The Thai golfer, controlled and precise with his irons through the week, never took his foot off the pedal and piled on the pressure to card 68 for the day and reach 20-under for the week.
His overnight rival, Stenson (72) never got going and faded to fourth at 13-under.
In between them two other Thais, Jazz Janewattananond (65) and Panuphol Pittyarat (66) were 17-under and 15-under in second and third places.
Justin Rose, currently World No. 2, needing T-16 or better to get to World No. 1, also had the incentive to get inside T-12 to stay at No.1 till the end of the year. He did neither with a card of 75 to be T-17.
India’s top finisher Kapur had the kind of a start he needed to get higher, but somewhere on the back nine, his putter went cold over the last seven holes and had just one birdie and also a bogey.
“Still not a bad week at sixth, though it could have been better, but sets me up well for the coming season,” said Kapur, who won three times in 2017, but was second once and sixth three times this year.
For Madappa, it was his third Top-10 of the year, which saw him log his maiden breakthrough win at Take Solutions in Bengaluru.
“It has been a great year, though at times, I felt I made some mental errors and did not get myself in contending positions. But I have learnt a lot and seeing Shubhankar, I would also like to aim for Asia No. 1 in the future,” he said.
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