Rahil Gangjee T9 at Taiwan Masters

Report by Anand Datla

October 04, 2014: Rahil Gangjee finished a good week in Taipei with a top 10 finish at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters at the Taiwan Golf and Country Club. He scored a double bogey, three birdies and three bogeys to shoot a 74 in the final round. Gangjee finished at one over for the week, good enough for a tie with Angelo Que in ninth place. SSP Chowrasia shot a 75 to end the week in T23 with an overall score of 6-over 294. As has been reported earlier, Steve Lewton won the tournament at 5-under 283.

Gangjee was under par in both the second and third rounds (74-71-70) and aided by birdies at the fourth and sixth holes, he was sitting pretty at three under early in the final round. But a double bogey at the par-3 eighth set the Indian back to his start at the beginning of the day. Gangjee fell to one over when he shot consecutive bogeys at the 11th and 12th holes and that is where he finished his round to claim a spot inside the top ten.

Chowrasia was hurt by a 77 in the second round and never quite managed to recover from there. The Kolkata golfer made five bogeys on a difficult Sunday to sign off with a 75 to end his tournament at 6-over 294.

Jyoti Randhawa slipped ten spots from his overnight position of 18th after scoring a 75 in the final round. Randhawa’s overall score of 295 dropped him into a five way tie for 28th. The week though clearly belonged to Lewton. The Englishman set himself up with a spotless 70 in the first round and capped a fine week with a 1-under 71 that contained five birdies to claim victory.

“This win means a lot to me. I’m ecstatic. It means I get the chance to get into bigger events now. It just made things a lot easier now,” said Lewton. “It’s been quite a tough year for me. I lost my father at the start of the year. He was diagnosed with bile cancer about two years ago and passed away earlier in January,” added an emotional Lewton. “He was like my best friend and he was also an avid golfer. He kind of pushed me to what I am today and he kept me going in golf when I was struggling in the past few years. It’s a real shame that he’s not here anymore to witness this but I’m sure he will be happy for me wherever he is.”

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