Melbourne: Asia\u2019s debutants at the ISPS HANDA World Cup of Golf left Royal Melbourne with mixed results on Sunday but vowed to make a quick return to the prestigious event and also the 2016 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
India\u2019s Anirban Lahiri emerged as the best performer with a final round of one-over-par 72 in blustery conditions to earn a commendable tied 25th finish alongside the likes of Major champion Vijay Singh of Fiji and Europe\u2019s Ryder Cup star Nicholas Colsaerts on three-over-par 277.<\/p>\n
Countryman Gaganjeet Bhullar battled to his week\u2019s best with a 71 but finished last in the 60-man field, a week after he enjoyed a top-10 at the Australian Masters which was also played over the iconic Royal Melbourne layout.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s Wu Ashun hit a fine closing 69 for a share of 38th place in his first World Cup appearance while Siddikur Rahman of Bangladesh, the first man from his country to qualify for the US$8 million event, settled for tied 55th position after ending his campaign in style by holing a bunker shot for birdie on the 18th hole for a 73.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old Lahiri, a three-time Asian Tour winner, said: \u201cIt\u2019s been a very good week, a very positive week. My first time out here, a big learning curve on new conditions and very different to what we play on.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo represent India for the first time as a professional was fantastic. I hope to play in more World Cups as there are a lot of good Indians out there. We have to continue to play a high level of golf to keep myself in the top few to get selected for events like this. I hope there will be many more to come<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what we work towards to, to get to the World Cup and the Majors. I look forward to playing in more events like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Countryman Bhullar was disappointed he did not feature prominently in the World Cup especially after he had high hopes following his strong outing in the Australian Masters in the previous week.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast week and this week, the ball striking has been absolutely the same. It was all down to the putting, the ball is not going into the hole, just taking extra shots to get in the hole. This week was totally different,\u201d lamented Bhullar, a four-time winner in Asia.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast week, I played really solid and thought I would repeat it this week. I think it was a lot to do with the overconfidence from last week\u2019s top-10. I sat down with my family over dinner last night and we were thinking about what went wrong. A lot of key factors which I thought would not disturb me got me. It\u2019s a good lesson. I will have to be more patient and not be result oriented and keep to the process and routine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tenacious Siddikur, currently third on the Asian Tour\u2019s Order of Merit, raised loud cheers around the 18th green when he holed a magical shot from out of the greenside bunker for a birdie and a closing 73 and 298 total.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nice to hole out from the bunker,\u201d said the Bangladeshi. \u201cIt\u2019s a great course, which I\u2019ve never played anything like this in my life before and also the greens were really so different. I couldn\u2019t putt but I\u2019m glad I played in this World Cup. My game is still there, I\u2019m hitting it good but I just couldn\u2019t deal with the putts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can maintain my game, and keep playing better on the Asian Tour, I\u2019m looking forward to playing more World Cups and also in the Olympics in Rio De Janeiro in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n
China\u2019s Wu, who won his second Japan Tour title two weeks ago, was delighted to shoot his second under par round of the week on Sunday. \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed my first World Cup. Managed to shoot a couple of under par rounds which was nice. This course, it\u2019s not like any I\u2019ve seen in China or Asia. The greens are very difficult. Course management is very important and it\u2019s probably the biggest thing I\u2019ve learned here,\u201d said Wu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was also a bit tired this week as this was my 10th week of playing in a row. I would probably need to plan better to ensure that I\u2019m fresh for the big tournaments in the future. Hopefully I will get to play in the World Cup again in two years\u2019 time and most certainly in the Olympics as well. I\u2019ll need to keep up my form over the next two years but I feel that my game is going in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Melbourne: Asia\u2019s debutants at the ISPS HANDA World Cup of Golf left Royal Melbourne with mixed results on Sunday but vowed to make a quick return to the prestigious event and also the 2016 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
India\u2019s Anirban Lahiri emerged as the best performer with a final round of one-over-par 72 in blustery conditions to earn a commendable tied 25th finish alongside the likes of Major champion Vijay Singh of Fiji and Europe\u2019s Ryder Cup star Nicholas Colsaerts on three-over-par 277.<\/p>\n
Countryman Gaganjeet Bhullar battled to his week\u2019s best with a 71 but finished last in the 60-man field, a week after he enjoyed a top-10 at the Australian Masters which was also played over the iconic Royal Melbourne layout.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s Wu Ashun hit a fine closing 69 for a share of 38th place in his first World Cup appearance while Siddikur Rahman of Bangladesh, the first man from his country to qualify for the US$8 million event, settled for tied 55th position after ending his campaign in style by holing a bunker shot for birdie on the 18th hole for a 73.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-isn-front-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n