Osaka (Japan),
\nIndian golfer Rahil Gangjee on Sunday clinched the Panasonic Open title in style by making a birdie on the last hole to end a 14-year-long title drought.<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old was tied with Korea\u2019s Hyungsung Kim and Hwang Junggon at 13-under with one hole left to play. Gangjee held his nerves to hit a birdie and bag<\/p>\n
the title. Gangjee had won his maiden Asian Tour title in China way back in 2004.<\/p>\n
The win brought Gangjee a lot of benefits, including a winner\u2019s cheque of over $283,000 and a bonus of $50,000 for finishing second on the Panasonic Swing<\/p>\n
behind Shiv Kapur (who got $70,000). Gangjee also got two-year exemptions on the Asian and Japan Tours.<\/p>\n
Since 2004, Gangjee had finished second three times, third three times and had a total of 22 top 10 finishes.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Gangjee had pulled out of Myanmar and Singapore events because of a stomach bug.<\/p>\n
Gangjee became the third Indian after Jyoti Randhawa (in 2003), Jeev Milkha Singh (2 in 2006 and 2 in 2008) to win a Japan Tour title.<\/p>\n
Last year, Ajeetesh Sandhu won a 36-hole event on the Japan Challenge Tour.<\/p>\n
Kolkata-born Gangjee wanted to be a jockey before his father convinced him to take up golf because he was afraid of his son getting injured. Little over a year<\/p>\n
ago, Gangjee moved to Bengaluru and the move seemed to have paid off. \u201cIt has been 14 years,\u201d Gangjee said. \u201cI\u2019ve been in such situations a few times now<\/p>\n
but obviously have not been able to convert my chances until today. It has been a very hard 14 years and the thing that surprises even me is my will to keep<\/p>\n
going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not forgetting all those who helped him in this period, Gangjee added, \u201cEveryone played their part in helping me out, my caddie, my mother, father, wife, friends.<\/p>\n
But more than anything else, you have to want it. And that has kept me going.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a massive relief for Gangjee, who did not have playing rights anywhere, including in India, when he came from US after losing his Nationwide (now<\/p>\n
Web.com) card in 2012. He earned the 61st and final card for the 2018 season.<\/p>\n
Ajeetesh Sandhu (69) finished tied-10th. SSP Chawrasia (73), a one-time room partner of Gangjee, was tied-40th, while Arjun Atwal (75), a former neighbour of<\/p>\n
Gangjee in Kolkata, was tied-44th.<\/p>\n
Beating Korean challenge
\nGangjee, who started one shot behind Kim, had a birdie on the second, which the Korean matched. But both Gangjee and Kim, who has not won on the Asian<\/p>\n
Tour, were tentative on the rest of the front nine. They bogeyed twice each, while Hwang, a group ahead, caught up with three birdies on the front nine. The<\/p>\n
Korean duo was tied at 11-under with Gangjee was 10-under. On the back nine, it was Gangjee who made the move first and Kim followed suit. Gangjee had a<\/p>\n
superb run of three birdies from the 12th to 14th, which carried him back to 13-under, while Kim birdied 13 and 14 to get to 13-under. Hwang birdied 12th to get<\/p>\n
to 12-under.<\/p>\n
Kim and Gangjee stayed steady with pars for the next three holes and were still at 13-under. Hwang bogeyed the 16th but birdied 17 and 18 to set the<\/p>\n
clubhouse target of 13-under. When Kim and Gangjee came to the 18th tee, there was a three-way tie. Kim went into the bunker and then Gangjee went into the<\/p>\n
bunker with his second shot. That\u2019s when Gangjee pulled off a great third shot and completed a great up-and-down to birdie the 18th, while Kim managed only a<\/p>\n
par.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart rate was up and my mind started going all over the place,\u201d Gangjee said. \u201cThat was the chance I had to convert. My third shot out of the bunker was<\/p>\n
not really a tough shot. But under pressure it could have been a very tough one. But somehow I was calm. My bunker play is one of the strongest aspects of my<\/p>\n
game. A lot of people don\u2019t get to see it, but if you ask my caddie, he will tell you that\u2019s the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Osaka (Japan), Indian golfer Rahil Gangjee on Sunday clinched the Panasonic Open title in style by making a birdie on the last hole to end a 14-year-long title drought. The 39-year-old was tied with Korea\u2019s Hyungsung Kim and Hwang Junggon at 13-under with one hole left to play. Gangjee held his nerves to hit a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28891,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28889\/revisions\/28891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}