Report by Anand Datla
June 15, 2015: There was to be no grandstand finish for Arjun Atwal, but it still was a satisfying week under the Sun for the experienced Indian golfer. He shot 74 in the final round to cede 33 spots on the leaderboard, sliding from T7 to T40 in the Fedex St Jude Classic. Atwal was heavily penalised from some rough edges, bleeding bogeys to slip down the order. Fabian Gomez had no such problems, riding easy to clinch a massive four shot victory over the field with a final round 66.
Greg Owen failed to push ahead on the final day, settling for second with a tame 70. Phil Mickelson is heating up just in time for the US Open this week – finishing TPC Southwind with a stylish 65 for a T3 in this precursor to the second major of the season.
Back to Arjun, who began the day with a bogey at the par-4 first hole was looking off colour straight off the tee, landing in the fairway bunker to start his day.
But then he seemed to get his head around to the task of finishing well, when he made birdies from 10ft & 18ft at the third and sixth holes.
He then missed from inside 7ft at the next hole to surrender a bogey to fall back to even for the round. Arjun two putted at the 12th to give away his third bogey of the round.
Matters worsened at the 14th when he sailed his tee shot 182 yards into the water protecting the passage. A penalty ensued and after taking the drop, Atwal took a fourth bogey for the round.
The 42 year old reached the final hole, at 3-under and still with some chance for a decent finish. Yet again, he sailed the tee shot into the water, took a drop in the rough and drove into the right rough on his way to a double bogey to sign off from a tournament that was very positive for three days.
Korean Seung-Yul Noh finished with a clean sheet and five birdies for a 65 that helped him tie for third with Mickelson and three others at 8-under for the week.
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