International Series India: Schniederjans records 'emotional' comeback win; Lahiri ensures top 10 finish

Gurugram (Haryana) [India], February 2 : Ollie Schniederjans completed a remarkable comeback victory at International Series India in front of a captivated audience packing out the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram, just outside Delhi.
The American, lifted by an outrageous chip in for birdie on 13, fired a three-under-par 69 for a four-round aggregate of 10-under.
It gave him a surprise four-shot victory over reigning US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, his nearest challenger - in the opening event of the year on The International Series that brought crowds flocking to Gurugram, a press release from International Series India stated.
The two-time major winner pulled out all the stops with a seven-under-par round of 65, 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. 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," said the 31-year-old Schniederjans, ably supported by his middle brother Ben as caddie this week as quoted by the release.
India's Anirban Lahiri ensured he was in the top-10 of the International Series India, a tournament for which he worked really hard to make the event happen.
Lahiri, who had an extremely difficult third round of 79 that was completed on Sunday morning, produced his best card of the week in the final round.
Starting his fourth and final round on the 18th after finishing the third round on the 17th. He birdied his first, the 18th, and then picked birdies on the first, fourth, seventh and the 10th with a sole bogey in between on the second. He carded 4-under 68 after 72-71-79 in his first three rounds. He finished at 2-over at the Tied-10th position.
Lahiri said, "The thing I liked 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 the Fireballs GC team of LIV Golf finished joint third on two under after a level-par final round, alongside reigning International Series Rankings champion Joaquin Niemann, with only four players finishing under par on the testing Gary Player-designed course.
The third round had to be completed this 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.
Japan's Higa (72) had started the final round in second place on four 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 every day 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.
They started round four immediately after the completion of round three and Schniederjans did not let up in pursuit of a morale-boosting victory, with Australian Greg Norman walking the course and watching intently.
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 whole 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.
Schniederjans is playing this week by virtue of finishing fourth at last year's LIV Golf Promotions event, with the top-10 players earning playing rights for The International Series.
He just missed out on winning the event in Saudi, which brings a passage onto the LIV Golf League, but having triumphed today he has 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 compatriot.
"Yeah, 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," DeChambeau said as the press release added.
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 local hero Anirban Lahiri, DeChambeau's Crushers GC team mate on LIV Golf, finished T10, while Frenchman Julien Sale, winner of the Smart Infinity Philippine Open last week, the Asian Tour's season-opener, finished in a group on T16 with Asian Tour Rookie of the Stefano Mazzoli.
Fellow Indian Gaganjeet Bhullar, the 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 age 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 SSP Chawrasia. Shiv Kapur, Ajeetesh Sandhu and Rahil Gangjee were the other Indian players to finish the weekend after making the cut.
The next event on the Asian Tour is the New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sport (February 27 - March 2), which will be followed by International Series Macau presented by Wynn (March 20-23) - the second elevated event of 10 that offers a pathway onto the LIV Golf League, as per the release.