By Rahul Banerji
It ended with yet another name on top of the leader board, the fourth in as many days at The Challenge presented by KGA, with Ugo Coussaud walking away the winner.
The Frenchman took top honours with a fighting, final five-under 67 at the $300,000 event in Bangalore, starting four shots off the overnight lead, the PGTI said.
The 30-year-old (68-67-68-67), overnight tied for sixth came from behind in dramatic fashion to win by one shot on 18-under 270 at the event co-sanctioned by the Challenge Tour and PGTI.
Ugo’s first win on the Challenge Tour earned him a cheque of $48,000 took him from fifth place to the top in the Challenge Tour Road to Mallorca standings.
Spain’s Manuel Elvira (70-67-68-66), who shot the day’s best of 66, finished joint runner-up along with Switzerland’s Joel Girrbach (69-64-68-70) on 271.
France’s Frederic Lacroix (70) and round three leader Lars Van Meijel (73) of The Netherlands, shared fourth place on 16-under 272.
Aman Raj (68-67-69-69) finished as the best Indian in tied sixth place at 15-under 273.
Clean sheet
Coussaud, who has two other top-10 finishes to his credit in the season, dropped just one shot the whole week.
On the front nine, he made long birdie conversions on the eighth and ninth to close the gap with the lead.
Coussaud, who finished 21st last week, then produced some great wedge play on the back nine to set up birdies on holes 12, 16 and 17 to cap his error-free last round.
Ugo said, “I didn’t know when it was coming, but I knew it was coming.
“After five years on the Challenge Tour, it’s not that quick but I’m very happy indeed. It means a lot. I’ve put a lot of work in with my team and it feels good to be on top. My golf has just taken time to come together but now it’s good.
“I’ve been patient for 72 holes. That’s golf. You need to be patient, and it takes more time for some than others but when it comes, it’s good.
“Today was a rough start but I managed to make a lot of pars, then a few birdies came like they have all week, and then I finished by birdieing 16 and 17 with two good wedges, which was good stuff.”
Rocky start
Aman Raj, tied eighth overnight five off the lead, had a slow start with a three-putt bogey on the second.
He then put together four birdies but missed a couple of eagle and birdie putts towards the end which halted his progress.
Aman gained two spots in his fourth top-10 in four starts this season on the PGTI to cement himself in second position in the Tata Steel PGTI Rankings behind Om Prakash Chouhan.
He picked up a cheque of Rs 8,30,000 for his effort this week.
Aman said, “The putts didn’t fall for me today but I’m pleased with my performance over the last two weeks with eight sub-par rounds.
“The game is trending in the right direction. One got to learn a lot playing alongside the Challenge Tour players over the last two weeks. I’m happy with the way I’ve played so far this season.”
The other Indians in the top-20 were Veer Ahlawat and Kartik Sharma, both finishing tied 11th on 13-under 275 and Karan Pratap Singh at tied 18th on 12-under 276.
Final standings, top 10
270: Ugo Coussaud (Fra) 68-67-68-67
271: Manuel Elvira (Esp) 70-67-68-66; Joel Girrbach (Sui) 69-64-68-70
272: Frederic Lacroix (Fra) 67-66-69-70; Lars Van Meijel (Ned) 66-66-67-73
273: Pep Angles (Esp) 66-71-68-68; Aman Raj (Ind) 68-67-69-69; Oliver Farr (Wal) 67-69-68-69
274: Alex Fitzpatrick (Eng) 65-65-71-73; Borja Virto (Esp) 68-68-70-68.
Also read: van Meijel storms into KGA lead, Sharma in T6 is four back
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