November 08, 2015: The WGC HSBC Champions came to a thrilling end, with Russell Knox surpassing joint leader Kevin Kisner to claim the title by a two shot margin. India’s Anirban Lahiri shot 71 to finish the week in T40 while SSP Chawrasia settled for T46 with a final round 72 in Shanghai. A second straight 68 enabled Knox to take victory with Kisner also repeating the 70 he made on Saturday. The Scot ended the tournament at 20-under 268 with Kisner at 18-under 270 at the Sheshan International Golf Club.
Danny Willett produced an outstanding 62 in the final round to jump 25 spots to T3 at 17-under 271. Willett was tied with Ross Fisher, who made 68 on Sunday.
First round leader Branden Grace also gained eight spots to finish in T5 with Dustin Johnson. The two men made 68 and 71 respectively to close out the week at 16-under.
World No.1 Jordan Spieth who made 63 on Saturday to get into contention, only managed a 70 on Sunday to finish in T7. He was in a group of four men that included the 20 year old Chinese star Li Hao-Tong.
There were six men tied in 11th on the leaderboard, including Rory McIlroy (66), Henrik Stenson (67), Sergio Garcia (68) and Thongchai Jaidee (68).
Lahiri made four birdies and three bogeys in yet another undulating round of golf. Inconsistency has been an issue for Anirban this week, as he appeared to battle fatigue throughout the tournament.
His best effort came in the third round when he made 66 despite a double bogey at the par-5 8th hole.
On Sunday, Lahiri made bogey at the 1st, 15th and 17th holes to three of the four birdies – 4th, 7th, 8th and 18th holes.
“It was a disappointing week and if I were to look back, it was my second round (75) that put a huge dent in my efforts,” said the current Asian Tour Order of Merit leader.
“It has been a long year and I’ve been playing at very low energy levels. I’m heading home next week and going to recharge my batteries for the last couple of events.”
“I just can’t say I’m tired or I played badly. I did played well on Saturday so how can you explain that? So it’s a combination of a number of factors and fatigue is one of those. I was not 100% fit both mentally and physically. I’m just going to plan my schedule better so that I can be at my best again,” added Lahiri.
After starting with a 69 on Thursday, Chawrasia struggled to mix it with the best, posting scores of 72-71-72 in the next three rounds.
For the second day running, Chawrasia made bogey at the par-4 fifth hole and added another at the 13th to wipe away gains at the third and 18th holes.
“Basically it was my putting that let me down this week. I’m going to work on it and hopefully it will be a better week in Singapore (World Classic Championship at Laguna National) next,” said Chawrasia.
Lahiri was six under 282 while Chawrasia finished with an overall score of 4-under 284.
