Golf:England's Robert Coles just failed to earn his first European Tour victory as India's SSP Chowrasia held on for a narrow victory in the Avantha Masters in New Delhi.
Chowrasia secured a home win as he edged out Coles by one shot in an exciting finish, the Indian shooting a final round of 67 to finish on 15 under par at the DLF Golf and Country Club.
Seven birdies in his first 14 holes had put Chowrasia in charge against third round leader Coles.
Chowrasia started the round well and sank a 15-foot birdie putt at the fourth before turning in 32. A 10-foot birdie putt at the 10th kept Chowrasia's good run going as he held most of the field at bay.
Coles was the only one who could live with his pace as his approach shot to the seventh span back into the hole for an eagle.
A winner in New Delhi in 2008 when he took his maiden European Tour victory in the Indian Masters, Chowrasia had his first blip on the 16th. He rushed his tee shot and pulled it left which eventually led to a double bogey. Pars on the final two holes saw Chowrasia set he clubhouse target at 15 under.
With four holes to go Coles was on the same mark and his approach to eight feet at the 15th looked to set him on course for a maiden European Tour win. Coles failed to take that chance and an even easier one on the 17th and was made to pay the price on the last.
A perfect tee shot and a second into greenside rough put him in a good position but his chip from a downhill lie went 20 feet past the hole.
He over-hit the putt which could have landed him the tournament win and an eight foot return was also missed so the chance to force a play-off was gone too.
A closing 68 earned Gregory Havret third on 13 under which left him one shot up on first round leader Robert-Jan Derksen who shot a 69 for fourth.
Coles admitted to his disappointment after failing to take the chance to break his tournament duck.
"It is obviously disappointing but I don't feel too bad right now," he said. "I will probably feel a lot worse tomorrow when it sinks in. I did have a great chance to win," he told the European Tour website.
"The ball was really far below my feet and there was a bit of grass in between it and the club - it was just a really awkward shot. I really needed to get underneath to get it up in the air as soon as I could but the ground was rock hard and it just kind of flew on me a bit.
"Then I got over the putt and I was still thinking I could make it and win the tournament, but I just hit it so hard and it flew out of the middle of the putter and then I obviously missed the one coming back."
Gareth Maybin finished nine shots off the pace after a final round of 70.
Collated final-round scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
273SSP Chowrasia (Ind) 70 69 67 67
274Robert Coles 70 67 67 70
275Gregory Havret (Fra) 72 67 68 68
276Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 66 73 68 69
277Sujjan Singh (Ind) 69 69 68 71, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 69 70 66 72
278Mark F Haastrup (Den) 71 66 68 73, Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha) 70 68 71 69
279Shiv Kapur (Ind) 72 65 72 70, Angelo Que (Phi) 71 68 68 72
280Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 68 67 70 75, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 72 69 67 72, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 70 68 70 72, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 68 71 68 73, Shamim Khan (Ind) 74 67 70 69
281Darren Beck (Aus) 67 72 73 69, Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 70 66 73 72, Joost Luiten (Ned) 68 71 71 71, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 68 74 69 70, Mark Foster 67 77 67 70, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 67 69 71 74
282Brett Rumford (Aus) 75 69 68 70, Anthony Kang (USA) 73 71 69 69, Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 71 69 74 68, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 70 67 71 74, Gareth Maybin 70 71 71 70, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 69 70 67 76, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 69 67 75 71
283A Siddikur (Ban) 70 72 70 71, Scott Hend (Aus) 69 72 72 70, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 69 73 71 70, Mars Pucay (Phi) 72 72 71 68, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 68 72 70 73, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 73 71 72 67, Ross McGowan 72 70 70 71
284Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 72 72 68 72, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 71 73 66 74, David Howell 70 72 76 66, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 70 71 72, Oskar Henningsson (Swe) 72 69 71 72
285Lee Slattery 75 66 75 69, Romain Wattel (Fra) 72 72 70 71, Floris De Vries (Ned) 72 67 70 76, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 69 69 73 74
286Marc Warren 69 70 72 75, Robert Dinwiddie 69 73 71 73, Richard Finch 68 69 72 77, Chiragh Kumar (Ind) 73 70 69 74, Daisuke Maruyama (Jpn) 71 73 71 71, Antonio Lascuna (Phi) 69 73 74 70, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 71 70 72 73
287Pariya Junhasavasdikul (Tha) 72 72 72 71, Seuk-hyun Baek (Kor) 72 70 72 73, Adam Gee 75 68 73 71, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 69 70 74 74, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 71 71 74
288Anthony Wall 70 72 72 74, Wei Chih Lu (Tha) 70 68 76 74, Scott Barr (Aus) 75 69 71 73, Tetsuji Hiratsuka (Jpn) 72 72 73 71, Richard McEvoy 75 69 74 70, Rashid Khan (Ind) 68 76 70 74, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 72 72 71 73, Simon Wakefield 71 70 74 73
289Sung Lee (Kor) 73 71 74 71, Thomas Norret (Den) 69 70 74 76, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 74 69 72 74, Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 72 72 69 76
290Peter Whiteford 69 71 77 73, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 71 73 71 75
291Julio Zapata (Arg) 67 76 70 78, Scott Jamieson 72 69 74 76
292Iain Steel (Mal) 67 75 78 72
293Yih-Shin Chan (Tpe) 72 72 73 76, C Muniyappa (Ind) 73 71 76 73
294Rick Kulacz (Aus) 72 72 68 82, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 72 71 78 73
298Mandeo Singh pathania (Ind) 72 71 81 74
299Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 73 71 76 79
300Danny Chia (Mal) 75 69 80 76
302Joel Sjoholm (Swe) 72 72 77 81
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