Asian Games golf: Mane misses bronze medal as men finish sixth

Incheon: Udayan Mane came agonisingly close to winning a bronze medal before ending one stroke off the third-place finish as he was tied fourth in the men’s individual golf in the Asian Games here today.

Mane, whose second round 66 had put him into medal contention, shot a three-under 69 and ended at 11-under 277.

Chinese Taipei’s Pan Cheng-tsung shot one under-71 in the last round to take the gold medal by a convincing two-shot margin over Korea’s Kim Namhun (68).

Interestingly, Korea’s Youm Eunhno, who was on Pan’s heels and just one shot behind, crashed to a 76 in final round and went out of medals. But Namhun rose to the occasion by grabbing the individual silver at 15-under 273 and his score also ensured the team silver for Korea.

Korea, who had swept all four gold medals in 2006 and 2010 had to remain satisfied with just one gold this time.

Chinese Taipei won two gold, while Korea and Thailand won one each.

Another Chinese Taipei golfer, Yu Chun An (67) overtook his own teammate Kao Teng to beat him to the bronze medal at 12-under 276.

Mane, the best Indian, was tied for fourth with Natipong Srithong (66), China’s Bai Zhengkai (68), Taipei’s Kao Teng (69) and Korea’s Youm Eunho ((76), all at 277.

The other Indians were Manu Gandas (71) in 11th place at nine-under 279, Feroz Garewal (73) at three-under 285 in tied 19th and Samarth Dwivedi (71) at two-over 290 in 32nd place.

In the team competition, Chinese Taipei (819) were runaway winners at 45-under for four rounds with three best scores counting each day. Seven shots behind in second place were Korea at 826 and Thailand (833) were third at 31-under. China and Japan tied at 29-under 835 and India were sixth at 25-under 839.

“I did my level best, but my third round 72 where I felt I had at least a round worth 67 and today’s was another good round but I scored only 69. The putts didn’t fall as the greens were rather slow,” said Mane.

Korea’s Gyeol Pak (64) ensured her country won at least one gold – as compared to all four in 2010 – by racing past overnight leader Thailand’s Budsabakom Sukapan (67) and Supamas Sangchan (68) to take the individual women’s gold.

The individual silver and bronze medals for Thailand (538) ensured a team gold in women’s team category, while Korea (545) and China (559) were second and third.

Gurbani Singh (74) was the best Indian at tied 15th at three-over 291, while Aditi Ashok (75) was 21st at 11-over 299 and Astha Madan (78) was 24th at 22-over 310. The Indian team was eighth.

PTI CM 09281821 NNNN