Anirban Lahiri finishes third in Newcastle

Newcastle: Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri shot a fine 3-under 68 in the final round but failed to find as many birdies as he deserved to finish third at the International Series England.

The 36-year-old had earlier finished second at the International Series in Vietnam.

Lahiri, who carded 70-69-69 in his first three rounds, finished at 8-under 276 and was third behind winner, Andy Ogletree (64) at 15-under and Ian Poulter (64) at 9-under 275.

Among the other Indians, Ajeetesh Sandhu (71-72-71-72) was T-31 while Gaganjeet Bhullar (76-67-75-76) at 10-over 294 was T-65 and Jyoti Randhawa (74-71-81-74) was T-74.

Lahiri, who finished runner up at the last LIV Series event, has been playing well. In five starts prior to this, he has been second or T-2 three times and T-12 once.

He has good results in the LIV Series, which have not been counted for World Ranking points.

Lahiri was "very, very pleased” with his performance.

“I think that was probably the top-three ball-striking rounds of the year for me, I think I would rate this round better than my Saturday at Bedminster (on LIV) and better than Adelaide (LIV).

"I was very, very happy with how I swung it. My control of the ball in the air, my distance control everything was spot on. I drove it phenomenally,” he added.

Ogletree stamped his authority once again on the Asian Tour by claiming the USD 2 million International Series England after a stunning seven-stroke victory – with a runaway 16-under tournament total.

The American was unstoppable, shooting a final-round seven-under-par 64 – the joint lowest round of the week.

This is Ogletree's third convincing International Series victory – he triumphed in Qatar by three this year, and by four in Egypt last season – and it consolidated his lead on both the Asian Tour and International Series Order of Merits. He won USD 360,000.