The pleasing lilt that hums its way around the course was missing all week, the heat robbing the place of its charm. But on Sunday, as the blazing sun glared down at its oppressive best, a gentle breeze was blowing across the landscape of Indian golf. Jyoti Randhawa and Gaganjeet Bhullar took distinctly different routes to ready the stage for the grand finish at the DLF Masters. Randhawa was told the script would be fairly simple, a steady round would ensure that the young turk would fall in line and finish an obedient second. But for Bhullar, a heady week in star-filled Turnberry in the early season had given the mind sufficient fodder for mischief and the will enough strength to stay resolute. A brazen charge helped Bhullar deliver his fifth win on tour to continue his unbeaten run and help break the Randhawa spell on domestic turf.
As the two got the final 18 holes underway, it was the 21-year-old who took the first hit but the senior pro who wavered. A one-foot putt that grazed the edge of the hole and stayed out on the par-3 third, started an unlikely meltdown for Randhawa. Bhullar, meanwhile, waited for his senior’s bogey streak to stop for him to start his run. A regulation birdie on the par-5 sixth was followed by his fourth straight birdie-steal from the bunker-guarded seventh hole to extend the lead to five shots. With Randhawa failing to put together a charge, the Kapurthala pro made his third birdie of the day, from a picture-perfect spot on the ninth green, to head into the back nine with a definitive six-shot lead.
For Randhawa, the challenge was all but over, a thought that Bhullar, by his own confession, allowed to play in his head as they approached the last few holes. But with fifty other professionals making the four-hour trek around the course, and a few notable names inching up towards the leader, the win was yet to be sealed. Shamim Khan threatened, but quietened down. Ashok Kumar promised, but stopped short and Anirban Lahiri charged up the leaderboard but had to be content with an unexpected second-place finish. Bhullar, on the other hand, kept the bogeys away from his card and added a couple of birdies, heading to the 18th green five clear of the next best name.
A ten-foot putt was needed to maintain that victory margin, and he duly obliged. Not because a five-putt quadruple-bogey would have severely shrunk his bragging rights but because that putt delivered a silent statement of intent, of promise. The same young shoulders would return to the DLF Golf & Country Club in a few weeks’ time, with the heavy weight of expectations and the added burden of leading the home charge during the week that matters, the Indian Open week.
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