Jyoti Randhawa claims Singapore Open

SINGAPORE, DEC. 10. India's Jyoti Randhawa lifted the $ 400,000 Singapore Open title today for his fourth career Davidoff Tour victory, but only his first outside his country, after firing a closing five-under-par 67 at the Singapore island country club. The 28-year-old Randhawa celebrated a dominating three-stroke triumph at the SICC's island course over South African Hendrik Buhrmann with his 20-under-par 268 winning total, which tied the third lowest score on the Asian PGA circuit.

Inspired by Randhawa's performance the other Indians also did well. Amandeep Johl shot 69 for the second day running after the first two rounds of 68 to take the third spot along England's Simon Dyson, Korean Charlie Wi and Filipino Gerald Rosales to win 18,700 dollars.

In 13th spot was Arjun Atwal who had scores of 68,70,68,71. Atwal won 6,400 dollars. Vivek Bhandari with an aggregate of five under 283 was 34th while Indrajit Bhalotia with 292 was in the 71st place.

Randhawa, the 2000 Indian Open winner, collected 64,600 dollars and moved from fourth to second place in the Davidoff tour order of merit behind Yeh wei-Tze of Taiwan, with the season-ending 500,000 dollar Omega Hong Kong Open remaining next week.

England's Simon Dyson kept himself in the hunt for the money list crown after the day's best of 65 earned him a joint third finish with Gerald Rosales of the Philippines (72).

``I've won three times previously on tour but all of them were in India. So, it's good to finally win one outside my country. My fellow players were telling me that I had to get the monkey off my back and I'm glad all doubts have been finally put aside,'' said Randhawa, winner of the 1998 and 1999 Hero Honda Masters in Delhi.

Leading final scores:Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 260: 72-64-65-67; Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa) 271:66-66-70-69; Simon Dyson (Eng) 274; 73-66-70-65, Amandeep Johl (Ind) 68-68-69-69, Charlie Wi (Kor) 69- 68-67-70, Gerald Rosales (Phi) 69-71-62-72; 275: Pablo del Olmo (Mex) 70-68-69-68, Ted Purdy (US) 67-68-68-72, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 67-69-70-69, Kang Wook-Soon (Kor) 69-70-70-66; 276: Des Terblanche (Rsa) 71-69-68-68, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 67-72-71-66;

277: Arjun Atwal (Ind) 68-70-68-71; 278: wayne Bradley (Rsa) 74- 65-69-70, Mo Joong-Kyung (Kor) 71-67-70-70, Ahmad Bateman (US) 68-67-71-72; 279: Richard Kaplan (Rsa) 74-68-67-70, Yang Yong-Eun (Kor) 70-69-70-70; 280: Simon Yates (Sco) 72-66-71-71, Marciano Pucay (phi) 72-67-69-72, Danny Zarate (Phi) 69-69-66-76, Ross Bain (Sco) 68-70-70-72, Chung Joon (Kor) 71-72-69-68; 281: Craig Kamps (Rsa) 75-65-67-74, lam Chih bing (Sin) 70-68-73-70, Hsieh Yu-shu (Twn) 70- 69-75-67, Yeh wei-Tze (Twn) 69-70-67-75, Rodrigo Cuello (phi) 69-72-69-71, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70-73-69-69.

- UNI.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Lee to miss Third Test
Next     : Railways enters semifinals