Brown wins maiden title, Jyoti finish joint second

New Delhi, Feb 23 (UNI) Jyoti Randhawa carded one under 71 to finish joint second as New Zealander Mark Brown won his maiden title after firing a steady three-under-par 69 at the 400,000 dollar SAIL Open golf here today.

Shooting four birdies against one bogey on the final day, the 33-year-old champion enjoyed a four-stroke triumph over the elite field thanks to a winning aggregate of 14-under-par 274.

Randhawa came as close as one shot of Brown,but beyond that he was unable to bridge the gap and by the finish, the former Asian number one had dropped a shot each on 16th and 17th holes and with that his challenge ended.

''I was losing focus and it was patchy, off and on,'' said Randhawa. ''But I am taking this as a preparation for next week (Johnnie Walker) and I hope it works.'' Tied for second place along with Randhawa were big-hitting Australian Scott Hend who finished even-par and Korea's Noh Seung-yul who ended his campaign with a 69 for a 278 total.

Malaysia's Danny Chia alongside local talent Gaganjeet Bhullar fired matching 72s and ended their run in a tie for fifth spot.

Brown earned the top prize of 63,400 dollars for his title winning effort and gained full exemption till the end of the 2010 season on the Asian Tour.

Brown was one under after nine holes on the final day and was calm on the way home firing a birdie on the 12th hole. He ended his solid week with a final 10 foot birdie putt on the 18th hole.

But by the time he finished others had withered, Randhawa dropped bogeys on 16th and 17th, Hend double bogeyed the 18th.

Ashok Kumar also had a one under par 71 round and with a total of 281 he finished joint 11th with China's Ichihara(70,71,62,68) and Singpore's Mardan Mamat(71,69,69,72) Mukesh Kumar had a last round of three under 69 while Chandigarh based Harinder Gupta shot one over 73 but both totalled 285 for the tied 22nd slot along with A.Prathaummanee (Thai) Yasin Ali (Eng), Adam Blyth, Neven Basic and Peter Cookle (Aus).

Amritinder Singh had four under 68 round and totalled par 288 for 36th place.

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