He might have a British Open appearance under his belt but till a few hours back, Shiv Kapur had never registered a top-ten finish on European soil. Starting the final round, just two shots off of having his name on the first page of the leaderboard, Shiv strung together a round of seven-under 65, with six birdies, a bogey, and an eagle that came on the final hole to finish eighth at the BMW International Open in Munich. For a brief while, Shiv flirted with a podium finish, tied for third place, allowing our hormones to do a little jig. That, however, was short-lived, as the leaders caught up and moved ahead of him on a birdie-strewn day.
It has allowed Shiv to move back to safe territory on the merit list but if he hopes to land a place at the season-ending event in Dubai, or be in contention in what the European tour prefers to call R2D, he needs to string together a few more good results.
Interestingly, of the three top-tens Shiv has to his name on the European Tour, two have come at the Indonesia Open. The third one was at the Johnnie Walker Classic held last year at the DLF Golf & Country Club.
The other Indian in the field, SSP Chowrasia, also had a good outing as he shot a four-under on the final day to finish tied for 21st place.
The course brought back memories of the SAIL Open sans-Nirat. The final day, which promised to be a battle between Retief Goosen and Bernhard Langer, was following a completely different script. Nick Dougherty seemed to be cruising towards a win, before Rafa Echenique launched a stunning assault on the course, ripping apart the back-nine with a record-equalling nine-under 27, including an albatross on the final hole. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't the shot heard around the world as Dougherty held his nerve to par the final hole and finish one shot ahead of the Argentine, with a four-day total of 22-under. The Englishman needed every bit of his eight-under in the final round to capture the title.
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Our favourite moment from the tournament? Well, should have been the incredible albatross from a player in contention on the final hole but since we didn't get to see it, we will have to go with David Drysdale's shot from the fairway in the third round, with a snake just a few yards away, revelling in the limelight. Surprisingly, Drysdale never saw the snake as it slithered off the fairway after getting a snake's-eye view of Drysdale's second.
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