Keita Nakajima’s emotions were limited to a modest fist pump and doff of cap when he holed the bogey putt on the 18th to win his first DP World Tour victory, as the young Japanese won the Hero Indian Open by four strokes. His dominant performance over four rounds came to an end with a double bogey, birdie, double, bogey and bogey, but the 23-year-old rising star had done enough up to that point to finish well clear of the field at 17-under.
Veer Ahlawat, a local, moved into a tie for second place at 13-under with Sweden’s Sebastian Soderberg and the United States’ Johannes Veerman.
Nakajima, the overnight leader at 18-under, birdied the first, fourth and sixth holes to get to 21-under, nine strokes ahead of the field. He bogeyed the eighth, although he was still on track to beat Chinese Taipei’s Chen Chien Chung’s record of eight strokes in the Indian Open from 1970. He shot 65, 65, 68, and 73.