Keita Nakajima completes wire-to-wire title run at Hero Indian Open, Ahlawat T2

Keita Nakajima completed his start to finish run at the $2.25 million 57th Hero Indian Open with a final round of 1 over par 73 and a tournament total of 17 under 271 at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon on Sunday.

The 23-year-old from Saitama was four strokes ahead of a three-way tie for second place between Veer Ahlawat, Joannes Vreeman of the US and Sweden’s Sebastian Soderberg who all finished on 13 under 275. Nakajima eventually had the luxury of a bogey-bogey-bogey finish, such was the extent of his advantage.

By the time he was done with the front nine on Sunday, Nakajima was nine shots ahead of the field. It was good insurance, considering he found the home stretch the harder section of the course through the four days.

"It feels amazing," Nakajima said. "I was a little nervous and I had a tough back nine but I hit some great shots. I want to try and finish on the top ten on this tour and then go to the PGA Tour in 2025.

“This is a tough course but my approach today was the same. I spoke to my coach last night and he said just play like you have done for three days. But the greens were faster today than before and I struggled again on the back nine.”

In contrast, Ahlawat closed out with a birdie-par-eagle sequence to recover from a mid-round slump that had seen him fall out of the race for second place. But on a day the venue finally bared its fangs, the lanky DLF golfer made good use of his familiarity with the course to record the best home finish since Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia’s second Hero Indian Open title here in 2017.

“I’m really happy to have played so well in front of my home crowd, my family and my wife,” Ahlawat said later. “There was some pressure this week as there were high expectations from me playing at my home course with my coach also being present here. But I managed to put together a good week thanks to some brilliant driving and iron-play.

“Finishing with an eagle was the icing on the cake. There was just one bad drive by me on the eighth today, other than that I didn’t hit bad shots. I just didn’t make good pars on a few holes I would say. Playing well in such a strong field and negotiating the tough windy conditions on the final day really boosts my morale. In fact this second place was as good as a win for me.

“I now lead the PGTI Order of Merit (with half his prize amount of $167,250 counting towards the domestic rankings), and that gives me a good chance to contend for the Order of Merit crown that can in turn earn me a card on the DP World Tour next year.”

Also finding a place in the top 15 were Manu Gandas who took a share of 11th place with a final round of 1 under 71 and Karandeep Kochhar in tied 13th riding on a closing 3 under 69.

Nakajima became the fifth Japanese winner in DP World Tour history and the third in just over six months, after Ryo Hisatsune at last season's Open de France and Rikuya Hoshinso who triumphed at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters last month.

The former top-ranked amateur is also the fourth winner of the Indian Open from Japan after Kenji Hosoishi (1967, 1968), Junichi Takahashi (1983) and Hidezumi Shirakata (1996) and the 57th Hero Indian Open was his breakthrough DP World Tour title in the 11th start of his rookie season.

Frenchmen Jeong weon Ko and Romain Langasque, Malaysia’s Gavin Green and Italian Matteo Manassero finished on 12 under in tied fifth place, one shot clear of Dane Jeff Winther and two ahead of German Yannik Paul, who was runner-up to Marcel Siem here last year.