American Dodge Kemmer claimed his first title in Asia after a decade of trying when he won the US$75,000 Gurugram Challenge today – an event jointly sanctioned by the Asian Development Tour and Professional Golf Tour of India.
He shot a fine final round six-under-par 66 (his third 66 in a row) at Classic Golf & Country Club, just outside New Delhi, to impressively finish 23 under and beat Thailand’s Chanat Sakulpolaphaisan by three shots. Chanat closed with a 68, while India’s Arjun Bhati was two shots further back in third after shooting 66.
Indonesian Rory Hie, the leader after each of the first three days, carded a disappointing 73 to tie for fourth, six behind Kemmer, with Indian Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (67) and England’s Joshua Grenville-Wood (68).
Kemmer, aged 34, started the final round one behind Hie, but played flawless golf to win, carding four birdies on the front and two on the back.
His success ratified his decision to stay on for the event after last week’s The DGC Open presented by Mastercard, where he finished joint 49th.
“It was a great decision!” said Kemmer.
“I like being in India, it was an easy choice. Obviously, a win is always good and good for the confidence and gets me in a good place on the ADT list in case I need that to stay on the Asian Tour next year.”
The American, a graduate of the prestigious Stanford University like current Asian Tour number one Sihwan Kim from the United Sates, turned professional in 2010 and made it through the Asian Tour Qualifying School in 2012. His best finish on the Asian Tour came in the 2017 Bashundhara Bangladesh Open while he has also three top-five ADT finishes to his name.
He added: “I saw on the forecast it was going to be windy and I noticed a lot of the pins yesterday and they were definitely the hardest of the week so I didn’t have a number in mind or expectations but I knew that scores would probably be higher, just with the wind and the pins, and so probably played a little more conservative if anything into the greens and that definitely paid off as I didn’t have any bogeys, which is a great way to have a final round.”
Hie had been favourite to add this week’s trophy to his 2019 Classic Golf & Country Club International Championship win on the Asian Tour at the same venue but never recovered from a double bogey seven on the par-five third.
