Shamim Khan coasts to comfortable five-shot win at Kolkata Classic 2017, leads PGTI Order of Merit

That’s exactly what he did with a dogged final round of even-par-72 that earned him his first ever title at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC).

Shamim ended the Rs. 40 lakh event with a total score of 10-under-278 to bag his 13th professional title and take home the winner’s cheque worth Rs. 6 lakh. He thus climbed from fourth to first in the PGTI Order of Merit.

Reigning Indian Open champion and pre-tournament favourite SSP Chawrasia of Kolkata finished runner-up at five-under-283 after a final round of two-under-70.

Kolkata’s Shankar Das (72) claimed third place at four-under-284.

There was a marked difference in Shamim Khan’s (70-68-68-72) ball-striking on Friday. He went from hitting six out of 16 fairways in round three to 10 out of 16 in the final round. This massive improvement in his tee shots helped him coast to victory without much trouble in round four.

The 38-year-old Shamim made a confident start with an eight feet birdie conversion on the second. The pro from the Delhi Golf Club had a few anxious moments when he dropped bogeys on the sixth and seventh but his lead was intact as nearest rival Mukesh Kumar of Mhow stumbled with five straight bogeys at the same time.

Shamim, the PGTI’s all time prize money leader with over Rs. 3 crore in earnings on the tour since 2006, consolidated his lead by draining a 25-footer for birdie on the 12th and making a brilliant chip-putt for birdie on the 15th. The bogey on the 17th was a minor blip before he cantered to the title with ease.

Shamim said, “I was driving much better today and hit a lot of fairways early on as compared to round three. That gave me loads of confidence. I knew I didn’t need to do anything spectacular from there on. I just stuck to my plan of keeping it in play and that worked out well for me.

“I made a lot of good chip-putts this week that more than compensated for my poor driving in the first three rounds. I worked on my hitting yesterday and also sorted some problems with my alignment.

“I’ve always played well at the RCGC and had some top finishes here in recent years. But it feels great to finally win at one of India’s best golf courses,” added Khan, who has now displaced Chandigarh’s Ajeetesh Sandhu as the Order of Merit leader with season’s earnings of Rs. 12,49,900.

SSP Chawrasia (71-70-72-70), who began the day in tied fifth, seven off the lead, carded an eventful 70 that featured an eagle, four birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey. He therefore moved up three spots and ended the week as runner-up at his home course.

SSP, fresh from his Indian Open win two weeks back, said, “I made many mistakes through the week. I needed just one really low score and that could’ve set up the tournament for me. But all credit to Shamim. It’s not often that one wins with such a huge margin at the RCGC.”

Shankar Das, another local professional, posted a final round of 72 to end up in third, one stroke behind Chawrasia.

Mukesh Kumar, who was overnight second and three off the lead, slipped to tied fourth at three-under-285 on Friday after a forgettable 76 that saw him drop six bogeys over a stretch of seven holes from the sixth to the 12th.

Chandigarh’s Sujjan Singh (71) and Om Prakash Chouhan (71) of Mhow shared fourth place with Mukesh.

Among the other prominent names, Chikkarangappa (73) was tied 12th at even-par-288 and Rashid Khan (71) was tied 15th at one-over-289.

Lucknow’s Sanjay Kumar shot the best round of the tournament, a five-under-67, to clinch tied 20th place at three-over-291.