Scott Hend
Australian Scott Hend claimed his second Venetian Macao Open victory in three years after holding off reigning champion Anirban Lahiri and Chiragh Kumar, both of India.
With an impressive final round of 66 yesterday, five under par, Hend achieved the final triumph at the Macau Golf and Country Club.
With this victory, the Australian has become the second player, after China’s Zhang Lian-wei, to win the tournament twice. He also achieved a record score of 20-under-par in a total of 264 strokes.
Although Hend did not say as much, this win was effectively a payback for last year’s loss of the title he earned in 2013, when this year’s 1st runner-up Lahiri then took the final win with just a one-stroke margin and collected a winner’s cheque of USD 162,000. This year, Lahiri and Kumar shared second place after closing with 66 and 65 strokes respectively, for a total of 267 strokes.
As for this year’s cheque, Hend collected the USD 180,000 cheque as the tournament reached the USD 1 million mark.
“I feel relieved and rewarded as I’ve worked very hard in Europe the last few weeks,” said Hend.
In a press conference held after the awards ceremony, the victorious golfer mentioned that he knew his opponent Anirban would not turn his back on the game, and would try to break even with the three-stroke advantage he had the day before.
“I knew Anirban wasn’t going to go away. He’s a great player and I just went out there aiming to shoot a good score, as I knew they had to catch me. I remember last year where I didn’t play solidly down the stretch and Anirban got me. So this year, it is a different feeling,” said Hend.
With this victory, the Australian now holds seven wins on the Asian Tour and has secured his place in the CIMB Classic in Malaysia and the WGC-HSBC Champions in China over the next few weeks. In his opinion, the turning point of the event was when he managed a par save on the tenth hole with a six-foot putt; otherwise, his three-shot lead would have been reduced to just one, as Lahiri knocked his fourth birdie of the day on that same hole.
In Hend’s opinion the decisive plays in this tournament are essentially done at the ninth, tenth and eleventh holes. As he overcame that stage with his lead untouched, he felt even more confident.
“I just tried to make the right choices and not put any pressure on myself and let Anirban have a sniff. I was concerned about Anirban, as once he gets a sniff, it’s pretty hard to get in front of him,” added Hend.
Although Anirban Lahiri was always in Hend’s sights, the Australian found Kumar more impressive, saying that “he is a serious threat and he is playing marvelously too.”
As for Lahiri, he put pressure on Hend with three birdies in the first six holes, but the Aussie recovered with back-to-back birdies on the eighth and ninth holes to preserve his overnight lead. Lahiri, the 39th best player in the world, then made mistakes that cost him the title, with bogeys on both the 12th and the 16th hole.
Lahiri was, however, positive about the outcome. “I can’t be disappointed. I played well today, barring a couple of really silly mistakes. I didn’t make a putt on 11 and then I dropped a silly shot on 12 and on 16, I shot myself in the head when I picked the wrong sprinkler head and picked myself a wrong yardage.”
Kumar also made a fantastic last hole birdie to tie for second place, securing the runner-up cheque of US$86,500 and locking in his participation card for next year’s competition. “Honestly, on this course and with Scott’s length, it would have been tough to catch him. I did get off to a good start (with a birdie and an eagle) and if I had made one or two good putts early on, I would have put some pressure [on him]. He played really well,” said Kumar.
Rounding out the Top 5 were America’s Brett Munson, finishing fourth on 270 strokes, and Irishman Niall Turner, settling for the fifth position with a count of two strokes more. RM – Macau Daily Times is the tournament’s official media partner.
Top 10 scoring players
264 – Scott HEND (AUS) 66-68-64-66.
267 – Chiragh KUMAR (IND) 67-66-69-65
267 – Anirban LAHIRI (IND) 66-67-68-66.
270 – Brett MUNSON (USA) 66-74-65-65.
272 – Niall TURNER (IRL) 70-68-67-67.
273 – Jazz JANEWATTANANOND (THA) 67-72-67-67
273 – Kiradech APHIBARNRAT (THA) 68-71-66-68.
274 – Javi COLOMO (ESP) 66-72-69-67
274 – Sam BRAZEL (AUS) 68-66-69-71
274 – Rashid KHAN (IND) 70-65-68-71
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