Ahmedabad, Dec 4 : Gaganjeet Bhullar, who began the week in a modest manner, closed it in a masterly fashion to become the first player to win three times on the Indian Golf Premier League (IGPL) Tour. Bhullar, who opened the week with a round of 1-under 71, which included a hole-in-one, added solid rounds of 67-67 on the last two days to total a winning 11-under at the splendid Glade One Resort and golf club.

The prodigious and highly talented 21-year-old Raghav Chugh, who graduated from Rice University in the USA, barely three months ago, gave it all, but with three pars in the last three holes, he fell one short and ended a creditable sole second. Chugh shot 4-under 68 and totalled 10-under for the week.

Three internationals, Filipino Justin Quiban, Mexican Santiago de la Fuentes, and Indian-American Manav Shah, all hoping to become the first international to win on the IGPL, were thwarted at the finish and ended Tied-third at 8-under.

The contest could not have been tighter as three players, Bhullar, Chugh, and Fuentes, were tied at 10-under with two holes left. But in the end, Bhullar, with 5-under, won the day, capped by an 18th hole birdie, that followed the crucial eagle-birdie combination on the 14th and the 15th.

Quiban (68), who, like Fuentes, was playing on an invite, mixed six birdies with one double bogey late on the 17th. That double bogey robbed him of a chance to contend for the title. He did close with a birdie on the 18th, but the damage was done, and he ended with a total of 8-under and tied third.

Fuentes, who double bogeyed the 17th, fell back and went out of the race. Chugh, 21, birdied twice on the 14th and the 15th to get to 10-under and into contention. There ended his birdie run with three closing pars, while moments earlier Bhullar found that extra energy and a birdie on the 18th to edge ahead.

Fuentes, the 2024 Latin America Amateur Champion, had a slow front-nine with just one birdie on the Par-3 fourth. His next birdie came on the 12th, and he backed it up with another birdie on the 13th, and he rose to 10-under, before others joined him. Fuentes stumbled on the tricky Par-4 17th with a double-bogey. After being in the lead at one point and then in a shared lead with two holes to go, he dropped down to tied third.

Shah, one of the overnight leaders, had a rough day. He had six birdies, but what ruined his chance was a triple bogey on the tenth, besides two other bogeys on the first and the sixth. He shot 71 and totalled 8-under for a tied third.

Ridhima Dilawari was the top woman pro, as she picked a solid Top-10 finish. Dilawari delivered her best round of the week with a fine 5-under 67 that had six birdies and one bogey. Ridhima, who, with the arrival of IGPL, has decided to play more on the domestic circuit in the coming year, had a birdie on the second, which she gave away with a bogey on the fourth.

A hat-trick of birdies from the sixth to the eighth put her firmly on course for a Top-10. She cemented that with back-to-back birdies on the 13th and the 14th and closed with four pars for a well-deserved 67. Kartik Singh (70) got back to the Top-10 and was T-6, while the first round leader, Veer Ganapathy (74) was T-12.

Bhullar, always a strong finisher, once again showed his experience and class in ample measure. He had an up-and-down front nine with a bogey-birdie start. He bogeyed again on the fourth, but three birdies on the fifth, sixth, and eighth saw him turn in 2-under. That put him firmly in the title race after having started the final day one behind the overnight leaders, Manav Shah and Santiago de la Fuentes.

He again had a bogey start on the back nine, and once again he pulled back with an eagle on the 14th and a birdie on the 15th. With matters level at a 10-under alongside Raghav Chugh and Fuentes, the contest was still open.

Bhullar, playing in the second-last group, threw the challenge with a birdie on the 18th and moved to 11-under and sole lead.

Bhullar, Indiaâ??s most successful player on the Asian Tour with 11 wins, won the first two events of the inaugural IGPL season in Chandigarh and Jaypee Greens. He then missed the next few IGPL events following his commitments on the International Series and Asian Tour, and some family matters.

He came back roaring for his third start on the IGPL in Ahmedabad, a city where he won a European Challenge Tour event, the Gujarat Kensville Challenge, back in 2011.

Chugh, a former US Kids Teen World Champion in 2019, started the day with a bogey, but made up with an eagle on the Par-5 fifth and added a birdie on the ninth. Back-to-back birdies on the 14th and the 15th lifted him to 10-under and into a tied lead, but the birdie run ended early, and he finished second.

After battling hard all day, Chugh was unable to find that one more birdie he needed to force a play-off with the waiting Bhullar.

A par for Chugh left him stranded one behind, and Bhullar was champion for the third time in three starts on the 2025 IGPL. He picked up his third cheque worth Rs. 22.50 lakhs, while Chugh earned Rs. 15 lakh.

/IANS