Gunasegaran scrapes to Olympic Open victory
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Malaysian P. Gunasegaran chalked up his first win in Indonesia after being unchallenged at the Olympic Open golf tournament at the Cikarang Golf & Country Club on Friday.
Gunasegaran ended the competition four-under-par 284 to take the first prize of Rp 82 million out of the total pot of Rp 450 million (US$50,000) in prize money put up by the organizers.
Indonesia's number one, Maan Nasim, followed behind to become one of only two local hopefuls to finish in the top ten on the final standings. He was tied with Chen Yuan Chi of Chinese Taipei on a six-over par 294.
The other was Ilyassyak, whose overall 12-over-par 300 tied him with Sasidaran of Malaysia in ninth place in the tournament, which featured 89 competitors from seven countries.
The organizers said in a media release here that the weather was good on the final day. Nevertheless, the course remained difficult to tame.
None of the golfers played under. The best were the even-par performance booked by three players: Maan Nasim, Dany Chia and V. Arumugam, the later two being from Malaysia.
Entering the final round with a huge advantage, Gunasegaran was not as aggressive as the day before and looked content to play it safe.
He was once trapped in a double-bogey and bogey before making amends with two birdies to scrape to a 73. Twice champion Stephen Atako Lindskog of Sweden was unable to match the eventual champion Gunasegaran.
Lindskog played a two-over 74 for an overall seven-over 295, and had to be content with fourth place. Following behind were Danny Chia of Malaysia, 2000 champion Wang Ter Chang of Chinese Taipei, the Malaysian trio of V. Arumugam, M. Ramayah, and M. Sasidaran, and then Ilyassyak.
Cho Min-am of South Korea was the best scorer among the three amateurs having survived the cut. He played a total of 317 to finish 30th while Eddy Binsar and Agus Siahaan, both from Indonesia, ended up bottom on a 330 and 333 respectively.
Gunasegaran said he was glad that he had finally managed to top a tournament in Indonesia.
"I'm absolutely delighted with the victory. This is my first win in Indonesia," Gunasegaran said.
"The course is nice, especially the greens. And the most challenging is hole 15 par four, which has a narrow landing area. It makes it difficult for me to address the ball," he said.
As expected, tight rivalry abounded in the fight for the runner-up spot.
Maan, Lindskog and Chen took the lead alternately during the matches, with the spectators following intently from hole to hole through monitors, according to the release.
The prizes will be presented on Saturday after the completion of the Pro-Am competition, in which the golfers compete in teams. The teams each comprise three amateurs and one pro.