Maybank sees Aussie Hend emerge winner in play-off

By Rahul Banerji

With the musical chairs played out atop the leader-board over the first three days at the Saujana Resort course over the first three day, of the Maybank Championship, it was no surprise to see a cliff-hanger finish on Sunday.

In the end, it was Australia’s Scott Hend who made a return to winning ways with a first Asian Tour title since the Thailand Open in 2016, carving out a play-off victory over Spain’s Nacho Elvira at the $3 million co-sanctioned event.

Bangalore boy Chikkarangappa S. capped his recovery from a shaky start with a third straight sub-par tound to finish as the best of the Indians in the field at shared 20^th place at 7-under par 281.

Sharma ties for 30th

Defending champion Shubhankar Sharma was two shots and 10 places behind on 5-under. On the day, Chikka handed in a 3-under card, while Sharma was again one behind at 2-under and unable to make up for his off-colour Saturday that saw him finish two over par.

In any case it would have been good preparation for the Hero Indian Open, which most in the Kuala Lumpur field will be flying in for to be played from Thursday.

Among other Indians, two-time Hero Indian Open winner S.S.P. Chawrasia (72 and 3-under 285) finished T41, while Viraj Madappa (74 and 2-under 286) and Gaganjeet Bhullar (68, 2-under 286) were T48. Ajeetesh Sandhu (74 and 2-over 290) was  tied 66.

Rousing start

Starting three behind the lead, Hend reeled off five birdies on his out nine before settling down to some steady golf with nine straight pars. He in fact had a one-shot lead heading into the final hole but a thunderstorm disrupted Elvira’s approach to the 18th green.

With rain following quickly, play was held up for close to a hundred minutes and when the players returned, Elvira dropped a massive 30-foot birdie putt to take the issue into a play-off with Hend.

When they returned, to the 18^th tee box, Hend’s drive hit a tree and bounced back on the fairway, while Elvira hit into a fairway bunker.

Hend hit another tree with his second shot and went into the greenside bunker but came out well to within three feet of the hole. It was good enough to seal his title bid and ease the pain of past play-off defeats in Switzerland in 2016 and 2017.

‘Can’t ask for more’

“I had to get off to a fast start as I was three shots behind. That’s all there was to it. I was fortunate enough to turn I in five-under and on the back-nine I shot even-par. I can’t ask for much more on a Sunday when the golf course is playing quite tricky,”the Austrakian said later.

Elvira’s runner-up finish was his second in as many starts after he finished tied second at Qatar before flying to Malaysia.

Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond closed with a 69 to take third place and lost his lead in the Asian Tour Order of Merit to Hend.

Indonesian-American Johannes Veerman bettered his previous best result of 12th place in 2017 by signing off with a 66 to finish in fourth place.

Incidentally,Hend moved into second place on the all-time career-earnings list, and becomes the second player to break the $5 million mark on the Asian Tour with 10 titles.

Also read: Solid Shubhankar makes day 2 gains at Maybank