Udayan Mane delivers a top-class 67 to emerge champion

Udayan Mane delivered a top-class final round of five-under-67 to emerge champion at the Rs 30 lakh PGTI Players Championship at the Classic Golf & Country Club here on Friday.

The Pune-based Udayan, playing in only his fifth season as a professional, collected seven Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points for his seventh title.

The 27-year-old Udayan (71-64-71-67), who achieved his target total score of 15-under-273, climbed from fifth to second position in the 2019 PGTI Order of Merit and is likely to take a big jump in the world rankings from his current 962 when the updated list comes out on Monday.

India's top golfer Shubhankar Sharma (70-68-69-67) finished joint runner-up at 14-under-274 while veteran Mukesh Kumar (71-69-69-65) of Mhow came up with a spirited 65, the best round of the day, to also bag tied second place on a topsy-turvy day that saw at least four players in the lead or the joint lead at different stages.

Udayan, lying overnight second, had hit his wedges to