Schniederjans seals International Series debut victory as DeChambeau grabs second place

International Series debutant Ollie Schniederjans made the most of his first visit to India with a merited victory at the $2 million event presented by DLF in Gurgaon on Sunday, beating out fellow-Texan and LIV Golf superstar Bryson DeChambeau by four strokes in fast-fading light.

On a day event organisers did well to squeeze in as many as 28 holes after a delayed start, Schniederjans, who earned entry into the series with a top-10 finish at the LIV Golf Promotions tournament last December, ended round three atop the leaderboard and ahead of Japan’s Kazuki Higa by three strokes.

The 31-year-old then showed how well he had learnt how to tackle the difficult DLF Golf and Country Club track with a closing 3 under par 68 to total 10 under 278, four ahead of the hard-charging DeChambeau whose 65 was the best score of the tournament but not good enough to overcome a rocky third round.

In fact DeChambeau (74), and fellow LIV Golf stars Joaquin Neimann (77) and Anirban Lahiri (79) all paid heavily for their 54-hole totals that needed to be completed over Saturday and Sunday with shotgun starts to compensate for all the time lost every morning. Schniederjans was lifted by an outrageous chip in for birdie on 13, and by the time he came to the closing stretch ahead of surging crowds, there was enough of a cushion over reigning US Open champion DeChambeau to overcome two bogeys in the final five holes.

The two-time major winner pulled out all the stops over the final 18 holes but it wasn’t enough to cancel out an eight-shot gap that Schniederjans had built up over him going into the final round, and he finished on six under for the week. “It means a lot to me,” said Schniederjans, who was supported by his second brother Ben as caddie this week. “This golf course is very challenging, and back in the day I would have had a hard time out here, so to come out and shoot those scores now, with everything I have been through, my game is a lot better than it ever was. This was proof this week.” Lahiri ensured he was in the top-10 of a tournament for which he worked hard to make happen with his best card of the week in the final round and also finishing as the best-placed Indian ahead of Gaganjeet Bhullar. Starting his fourth and final round from the 18th after finishing the third round on the 17th, Lahiri (72-71-79-68) picked up a shot on his first hole and made further gains on holes 1, 4, 7 and 10 with a lone dropped shot in between on the second.

Lahiri said later, “The thing I like the most this week was my attitude. Even though we played 27 holes on the final day, I am feeling emotionally drained rather than physically. It’s really been a wildly successful week. I knew it would be a great tournament, but what transpired was beyond what I expected.”

“I expected this early in the season, but good to know that I am the best Indian in the tournament. I would dearly have loved to be hoisting the trophy, but this is very encouraging and I am looking forward to LIV Golf Riyadh next week”, he added. Abraham Ancer of LIV’s Fireballs team was joint third on 2 under after a level-par final round, alongside reigning International Series Rankings champion Joaquin Niemann, with only four players finishing under par on the Gary Player-designed course. The third round had to be completed on Sunday morning, and Schniederjans got off to a great start as he carved out a three-shot lead on seven under. The field had nine holes to finish after a first shotgun start on Saturday afternoon, and the American birdied his first three holes – 10, 11 and 12 - enroute to a 69. Higa (72) had started the final round in second place on 4 under, but ultimately fell away to T5 on level par after a four-over final round of 76. The backlog was the result of long delays caused by thick fog each morning. In order to complete 72 holes, the organisers switched to shotgun starts for rounds three and four, with players staying in the same pairings and getting the fourth round going immediately on finishing the third. Schniederjans did not let up in pursuit of a morale-boosting debut victory, with Australian Greg Norman walking the course and watching his progress. He had a five-shot lead at the turn from Higa and DeChambeau. That lead became six when he sensationally chipped in for a three on the par-four 13th from a difficult lie to the right of green, where it looked like a bogey would be more likely. And despite a bogey on 17, the American safely made par on 18 to see things out, narrowly missing out on a birdie chip in from the fringe of the green. Schniederjans’ win is a remarkable one. He had replacement surgery on both hips in 2022 and was out of the game for well over a year. It was his final attempt to fix a host of injury issues which had derailed the career of a player who was ranked the world’s top amateur in 2014 for 41 consecutive weeks. He also won on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2016, the year after turning professional.

He just missed out on winning the Riyadh Promotions event, which brings a passage onto the LIV Golf League, but has now made the ideal start to The International Series Rankings race, with the champion also earning a berth on the roster. Speaking out about his long journey back to victory, he said: “It was a long process, it took a lot of patience. I did a lot to change my body and swing, and had to learn a lot through that process. There were setbacks that took me years to get to this point. This year has been good, I have been able to be on the course all year for a year now. I've been able to put everything together, and I knew something like this was coming.” DeChambeau did all he could to catch his one-time amateur rival. “I scored really well and made a lot of great putts. Got off to a hot start on 18… I am pleased with how I performed and played but not pleased with how I struck ball. I have been hitting it so well, I played a Break 50 (Bryson’s YouTube show) and was hitting it so well. I don’t know what happened so I have to figure it out for LIV Golf Riyadh this coming week.” Sebastian Munoz of Colombia, Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra and Higa of Japan finished T5 on level par,

ahead of Australian Kevin Yuan and Chase Koepka in eighth place on one over. A six-man group which included Lahiri shared tenth place while Frenchman Julien Sale, also a debut winner at the Asian Tour’s Smart Infinity Philippine Open last week finished in a group on T16 with Asian Tour Rookie of the year Stefano Mazzoli. Bhullar, an 11-time Asian Tour champion, was T24 on seven over, two ahead of Karandeep Kochhar (+9), with Yuvraj Sandhu on 11 over. Amateur star Kartik Singh, who at aged 15 became the youngest Indian to make the cut on the Asian Tour, signed off with a 75 to finish T53, just behind Shubhankar Sharma and S.S.P. Chawrasia. Shiv Kapur, Ajeetesh Sandhu and Rahil Gangjee were the other Indian players to finish the weekend after making the cut.