June 7: Sweden’s Charlie Lindh, second in his last outing at the Kolon Korea Open, once again showed the importance of seizing the momentum in golf when he secured his maiden title on the Asian Tour by winning the US$500,000 am green IGPL Bharath Classic in Morocco.

It was a grandstand finish for the 28-year-old, who eagled the last hole to win by four shots at 18-under par total, having started the day three behind the overnight leader, Thailand’s Settee Prakongvech. The eight-under par 64 was also the best round of the tournament.

Settee could only muster a 71 on the day when it mattered most and fell to a tie for second place at 14-under with tall American Charles Porter (66).

Porter had reached 16-under after 17 holes and was tied with Lindh playing the last, but he pushed his second shot into the beach and proceeded to make a disappointing double bogey.

Charlie Lindh of Sweden. Picture courtesy: FRMG

Thailand’s Sarit Suwannarut shot a 66 and jumped to tied fourth place alongside England’s Sam Broadhurst (68). American Marcus Plunkett also shot a 66 to move to tied sixth place at 12-under where he was joined by the Thai duo of Poom Saksansin (69) and Runchanapong Youprayong (70).

The tournament was co-sanctioned by the Indian Golf Premier League (IGPL), and Karandeep Kochhar (68) was the organisation’s top performer at tied ninth. Ayoub Lguirati (69) was the leading Moroccan star, finishing tied 13th at nine-under.

The winning cheque of US$90,000 takes him to third place in the Asian Tour Order of Merit, and will boost his motivation ahead of next week’s US$2 million International Series Morocco.

“It feels good…feels really good. Feels like I’m still focused, but when everything settles a little bit, I will realise what I have done today. I have been playing good coming into this week, and I have been very, very excited to play golf the last couple of months, because the game has been feeling better. And thankfully, I got some good results today,” said Lindh, whose win came a day after the Swedish National Day and with his childhood friend Isac Bondesson on his bag.

On the 18th, Lindh reached the edge of the green in two shots, and then putted from the fringe some 20 feet from the pin for the eagle.

Charles Porter of the USA. Picture by Graham Uden/Asian Tour.

On Saturday after his round, Lindh said he wanted to be aggressive and make some early birdies.

“I was firing at every pin from the start, almost birdied the first and second, but got it on three and five. I just kept firing on pins, and I made a good long putt on hole number six,” said Lindh, who hails from a tiny village of less than 600 people near the southern Swedish city of Kristianstad.

“When I made the birdie on the sixth, I thought to myself, ‘all right, I got one shot to play with, and until I drop that shot, I can fire at everything’.”

Settee seemed out of sorts in the first few holes and made three bogeys in his first eight holes. He then turned it around with four birdies in the next 10 holes.

Settee Prakongvech of Thailand. Picture by Steve Bardens/Asian Tour.

“It was just a bad start and maybe some unlucky shots, but I could come back from that. I thought I did not hit my tee shots as good as yesterday, but I also missed some short putts,” said the 31-year-old from Bangkok.

“I am ok with tied second, though. I missed five cuts in a row before this tournament, so finishing second is a good week.”

It was a disappointing end for Porter, who made the cut in stunning fashion on Friday by making four birdies in his last five holes. He then shot a 65 on Saturday to move up the leaderboard. He made seven birdies, an eagle and a bogey in his first 16 holes, before the disaster on the 18th hole.

The Asian Tour moves 180 kilometers north to the capital city of Rabat for the US$2 million International Series Morocco presented by Visit Morocco.