Diamond Cup: T37 finish for Gaganjeet Bhullar

September 27, 2015: It took him all week, but finally Gaganjeet Bhullar seemed to have found the measure of the West Course at the Otone Country Club in the Ibaraki prefecture of Japan. It came a little late, but his blemishless 69 containing a lone birdie was just enough to help him gain eight more spots to T37 in the Asia Pacific Open. Rashid Khan shot 71 to end in T52, three shots behind his compatriot. Korean K T Kim flew past the valiant Japanese Toshinori Muto to claim a comfortable three shot victory.

Kim (67-69-67-68) won the title with an overall total of 9-under 271 with Muto (69-68-70-67) and another Japanese Yuta Ikeda (68-70-67-69) trailing behind at 6-under 274. Gaganjeet (72-70-71-69) had a total of 2-over 282 and Rashid (70-73-71-71) was five over at 285.

The determined Bhullar played a solid round of golf and though he might wish that he converted a few of his opportunities to work it deeper into the red, it was a satisfying finish to have made no bogey in the final round.

Khan was one under through the eleventh hole, but the bogeys at the 11th and 13th saw him slip into over par territory for the third day running.

“A few shots lead can easily be erased here so I kept to my pace and I told myself that if I can hit under-par today then I will have a good chance. It was never going to be an easy win and it wasn’t,” said a relieved Kim, who two shot morning lead was wiped away by Muto by the 12th hole.

“To be honest, I wasn’t watching the leaderboard,” explained Kim. “I thought I was two or three shots ahead of everyone until I reached the par three 13th hole. That’s when I saw that I was tied for the lead. I knew it was going to get harder but I didn’t want to push myself too hard. I stayed relax and I was able to get the birdie.”

“On the 18th hole, I knew that Toshinori (Muto) and Yuta (Ikeda) were two shots behind and that they could eagle the hole. I wanted to get a birdie and I did. I wasn’t aware of what my playing partners did so I only knew that I won until the very end. I was nervous!”