By Rahul Banerji
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen shot a composed closing round to land his maiden Challenge Tour title in Kolkata on Sunday with Rahil Gangjee taking a share of second place at the $300,000 event.
Denmark’s Neergaard-Petersen led by four strokes at the start which gave him the cushion to survived a double-bogey 6 on hole 12 to bring home his first professional title on only his second season on tour.
Gangjee will rue the two bogeys on his front nine at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club that dented his charge after having picked up two strokes inside the first four holes.
The experienced Gangjee would chalk up a further three birdies but the young Dane withstood the pressure from his chasers that including England’s Sam Horsey, who also finished second two shots behind the winner.
Productive run
It was Gangjee’s third top-five finish of the season, after second place at the season-opening Players Championship at Tollygunge Club, and third at the Vooty Masters in Vikarabad near Hyderabad.
In the first leg of the Challenge Tour’s India Swing, the 43-year-old was tied 22nd at the Classic Golf and Country Club. Sunday’s result also gave Gangjee the top spot in the Tata Steel PGTI Rankings ahead of last week’s leader Manu Gandas.
Neergaard-Petersen’s closing 1 under par 71 to go with previous cards of 68, 65 and 68 saw him finish on 16 under 272, two ahead of Gangjee (70-68-67-69) and Horsey (69-71-67-67).
Three other Indians finished in the top ten. Veer Ahlawat tied for fifth on 10 under 278 while Angad Cheema and Om Prakash Chouhan shared eighth place on 9 under 279 alongside Dutchman Will Besseling.
Neergaard-Petersen was delighted to pick up a win in just the sixth event on the 2024 Road to Mallorca and having turned professional less than 12 months ago, the Challenge Tour reported.
“It feels incredible,” he said. “I’ve been professional for nine months, so to get a win, especially so early in the season, is huge.
Big test
“It was a big test out there today. Rahil played great. He kept bouncing back and he gave me a tough run in. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet, but for now, I’m just really happy.”
Neergaard-Petersen started the day four strokes clear and had extended that to five over playing partner Gangjee by the eighth hole.
However, after back-to-back gains by Gangjee at the ninth and tenth holes saw him close in, and when Neergaard-Petersen double-bogeyed the 12th, the lead was down to one stroke.
Neergaard-Petersen responded with birdies at 13 and 14 to move clear once again, and despite a late birdie from Gangjee, he would hold on for a memorable victory.
“Going into the final round with a four shot lead, I knew it was going to be difficult at some point, and it came at the 12th hole,” the Dane said. “At that point I really had to tell myself to make good decisions.
“I told myself that I’d been playing well the last couple of holes and over the last few days, and just to trust my game. From there I bounced back after the double bogey with two straight birdies. I’m delighted.”
Frenchman Alexander Levy finished in fourth place on 11 under 277, Sweden’s Mikael Lindberg and Kristoffer Broberg sharing fifth place with Ahlawat (67-70-70-71).
Lindberg moves to the top of the Road to Mallorca Rankings, with Neergaard-Petersen climbing 29 places into second.
Welshman Rhys Enoch is third, last week’s Delhi Challenge winner John Parry drops to fourth, and Frenchman David Ravetto completes the top five.
Top Indian scores
T2: 14 under 274 Rahil Gangjee (70-68-67-69)
T5: 10 under 278 Veer Ahlawat (67-70-70-71)
T8: 9 under 279 Angad Cheema (70-70-67-72), Om Prakash Chouhan (72-69-68-70)
T13: 7 under 281 Dhruv Sheoran (69-69-70-73)
T16: 6 under 282 Akshay Sharma (68-73-69-74)
T19: 5 under 283 Yashas Chandra M.S, (71-69-71-70), Aadil Bedi (70-72-70-71)
T26: 4 under 284 Saptak Talwar (71-71-73-69), Manu Gandas (72-68-70-74), Sachin Baisoya (69-71-74-70), Mohammad Sanju (69-70-72-73), Karan Pratap Singh (69-73-71-71)
T35: 3 under 285 Aman Raj (70-70-74-71), Arjun Prasad (69-72-71-73)
T38: 2 under 286 Sunhit Bishnoi (70-70-69-77), Udayan Mane (67-71-76-72), Samarth Dwivedi (70-71-72-73)
Also read: Gangjee shares second place behind Kolkata Challenge leader
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