India found its newest Asian Tour title winner in unheralded Bangalorean C Muniyappa, who held his nerve and survived a playoff to bag the Hero Honda Indian Open golf tournament here today.
The DLF Golf and Country Club stood witness to the rise of a new Indian golfing star as Muniyappa never allowed the lead to slip through his fingers since he had soared to the top after the second round.
The Asian Tour rookie signed off with a modest two-under 70 and went on to blunt Korean Lee Sung’s ambition in the playoff.
Playing his rookie season on the Asian Tour, Muniyappa sank his birdie putt on the par-five 18th hole to claim an emphatic play-off victory on home soil at the USD 1.25 million tournament.
Both Muniyappa and Lee ended the tournament on 12-under 276 in regulation play before they headed back to the 18th hole for the play-off.
Fellow Bangalorean Anirban Lahiri brought in the best card of the day, a sparkling eight-under 64, to zoom to tied third at 10-under 278.
Finishing just one stoke behind at tied sixth were the Indian duo of Digvijay Singh and Ashok Kumar at 280, while Harendra Gupta (282) notched up a tied eighth place finish.
Among others, rising Indian Gaganjeet Bhullar (284) finished tied 16th, while Arjun Atwal’s (288) worst card of the week, an error-strewn 77, had the Orlando-based Indian tied 33rd, one shot ahead of SSP Chowrasia who came tied 36th.
Indian-born Swede Daniel Chopra (286) finished tied 21st, while former US Open champion Michael Campbell (305) came tied 70th.
