Indian sports wrap, October 28: Shubhankar Sharma finishes 66th as Byeong An beats Kim to Genesis title

GOLF

Sharma finishes 66th as Byeong An beats Kim to Genesis title

It was another disappointing week for Shubhankar Sharma, whose weekend rounds of 76-76 saw him finish tied-66th at the Genesis Championship on the DP World Tour.

Earlier, Sharma had rounds of 71 and 68.

Korea’s Byeong Hun An beat fellow countryman Tom Kim in the play-off to secure his second DP World Tour title.

Birdies kept pouring throughout the day as six players held the lead in some capacity at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club on Sunday.

The group at the top of the leaderboard was closely packed until Kim jumped one shot clear heading down the last when An lipped out for a bogey on the penultimate hole.

Both landed their approach shots to eight feet for birdie putts, with An applying the pressure by draining his effort to move back alongside Kim at 17 under.

Kim needed to sink his to claim the one-shot victory, but he lipped out and the two home favourites were forced into a play-off.

Both played risky second shots when replaying the par-five last, but Kim was left in a precarious position which resulted in him shooting into the main stand with his third and carding a bogey.

An had two putts for the title on home soil and only needed one to seal his first victory on the DP World Tour since lifting the 2015 BMW PGA Championship, nine years and 156 days ago.

Ricardo Gouveia, who began the week in 154th place on the Race to Dubai Rankings, recorded his first top-20 finish of the campaign with a brilliant third at 16-under to earn his playing rights for next season.

Antoine Rozner was one shot further back, Italian Guido Migliozzi carded the lowest final round of the day with a flawless 65 to sit at 14 under, while Francesco Laporta, first-round leader Ivan Cantero and South African Casey Jarvis were two more adrift.

-PTI

Rayhan Thomas finishes seventh in Thailand

India’s Rayhan Thomas registered a second top-10 finish on the Asian Tour, ending up tied-seventh at the International Series Thailand after being three off the lead after 54 holes.

The UAE-based golfer was unable to replicate the magic of the second and third rounds of 63-64 as he shot 2-under 68 on the final day to total 16-under. He had four birdies, three of them between the 14th and the 17th.

Among the other Indians, Gaganjeet Bhullar (67) finished tied 19th and Karandeep Kochhar (67) tied-24.

Chinese-Taipei’s Lee Chieh-po finally claimed his maiden title on the Asian Tour after sensationally overtaking hot favourite Peter Uihlein at the very end. Lee birdied the final two holes at the Thai Country Club to beat Uihlein, after the American had led from the second day.

The champion, playing in the penultimate group, fired a seven-under-par 63 to finish on 21-under, while Uihlein closed with a 67 to tie for second place with Canadian Richard T. Lee, who carded a 62.

The 29-year-old grew up playing golf with Kevin Yu, a winner on the PGA Tour this year, and sees him as an inspiration.

For Richard T. Lee it was yet another near miss. Since the Tour resumed after the global pandemic, he finished second twice, third on three occasions and has been in the running on numerous occasions.

Last week’s winner of the Black Mountain Championship Michael ‘MJ’ Maguire closed with a 62 to tie for fourth, three behind the winner, along with fellow Americans Paul Peterson, in with a 63, and Christian Banke, who fired a 64.

The action shifts to next week’s BNI Indonesian Masters where India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar is the defending champion.

-PTI

RACKET SPORTS

Chaufla secures silver at All India Racketlon Open

India’s Vikramaditya Chaufla had to settle for a silver medal after going down fighting against UAE’s Mohammed Kuba in the All India Racketlon Open here.

Chaufla, who is India’s highest-ranked racketlon player and has taken part in multiple world championships, ended on the podium alongside gold winner Kuba and third-place Adit Patel in the premier men’s singles event of the tournament. The finals took place on Sunday.

Racketlon is a combination sport in which the competitors are required to play four racket sports: table tennis, badminton, tennis and squash.

Naheed Divecha won the women’s singles title ahead of Shikha Barasia and Tara Bhandare.

In the men’s singles 40-plus category, Nikhil Bhandare won the gold ahead of Varun Motasha and Akshay Jalan.

Krishna B Kotak, the founder of Racketlon India Sports Association (RISA), topped the men’s singles 60-plus category ahead of Sant Swaroop Sharma and Kurimilla Devi.

-PTI