Zamal misses out on PGTI win by a whisker

Zamal Hossain Mollah missed out on a third PGTI title by one stroke after failing to convert a 15-feet birdie on the final hole of the TATA Steel PGTI Players Championship at the Chandigarh Golf Club on Friday.

Zamal (67-66-69-70), the overnight leader, missed his birdie putt by a whisker and thus the opportunity to take the match into a playoff went begging. Zamal's last round 70 saw him claim the runner-up position at 16-under 272.

Chandigarh's Yuvraj Singh Sandhu continued his red-hot form with his third win in five months much to the delight of the home crowd at the Rs. 50 lakh event.

Karandeep Kochhar, another Chandigarh lad, fired a spectacular 65 in round four, the day's best score, to secure third place at 15-under 273.

Zamal had enjoyed a slim one-stroke lead early in the day till there was a two-shot swing in favour of Yuvraj on the par-3 eighth that helped the latter move into a one-shot lead.

On the back-nine, Yuvraj's putter stayed hot as he continued to drain putts from a range of 10 to 15 feet to push ahead with birdies on the 11th and 12th even as Zamal's form with the driver seemed to have deserted him with no birdies in sight for the Dhaka-based golfer.

There was another twist on the 17th, this time a two-shot swing in favour of Mollah as he birdied from four feet while Sandhu found the trees and the bunker to concede a shot.

Yuvraj finally saw it home after playing a quality chip to set up a tap-in for par on the 18th but not before surviving a scare from Zamal who narrowly missed a 15-feet birdie conversion on the same hole that could've taken the match into a playoff.