Indian golfer Shiv Kapurpicked up the biggest cheque of the year after finishing tiedfourth with a superb four-under 67 in the final round of theAsia-Pacific Panasonic Open here on Sunday.
Kapur picked up a cheque of USD 80,000 after finishingwith a four-day total of 13-under 271, ending four behind theleader.
He had rounds of 67, 68, 69 and 67 at the USD 1.9 millionevent sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour.
The second top-five finish of the season for Kapur alsomore than doubled his earnings this year on the Asian Tour. Italso brought him up from 22nd to 11th place on the Asian TourOrder of Merit for the year.
"I'm pretty happy. It is nice to string four good roundstogether. I've been up there on the leaderboard lately and hadsomething to prove to myself. I wanted to carry the form forfour rounds," Kapur said.
"Being on the leaderboard and not finishing the job hasbeen disappointing but this week was nice. I played reallynice but unfortunately the putt on the last didn't drop. Butthis is golf and we accept it. It's nice to be up there andhave the juices flowing.
"I was solid. I bogeyed the first and then played reallygood golf. I gave myself a lot of chances. For the first timethis week, I felt comfortable off the tees which is nice. Theysay better late than never," he added.
Even as Kapur rose from overnight 11th to fourth, hisplaying partner and Asian Tour rookie Masanori Kobayashiproduced a stunning front nine of seven-under 28 enroute to anine-under 62 and won the title on home soil.
Kobayashi was one shot ahead of Koumei Oda (67), who bogeyed the 17th and missed a chance to get into a play-off.
Things were not so great for the other Indians, as JeevMilkha Singh (72) was tied 51st, Chiragh Kumar (77) dropped totied 68th and SSP Chowrasia (74) was tied 70th.
Overnight leader Masamichi Uehira (72) of Japan endedthird while Kapur, Juvic Pagunsan (71) and Tomohiro Kondo (70)shared fourth place after shooting a 67 and 71 respectively.
Kapur and Kobayashi played together and seemed to feedoff each other for some time before the Japanese ran away.
Kapur had five birdies and one bogey in his 67.
On playing with Kobayishi, Kapur said, "It was niceplaying with Masanori Kobayashi, who shot 62. We were tryingto match each other shot-for-shot. He kind of got hot in themiddle and ran away from me.
"My personal goal was to get to 15 or 16-under. I thoughtif I do that, then I might have a chance and I came up justshort. All in all I played well and this is not the last weekof the year. I'll play in Europe then go to Macau."
Kobayashi matched the second best nine hole score ofseven-under-par 28 on the Asian Tour for nine-under-par 62 anda winning total of 17-under-par 267
Kobayashi, who earned his Asian Tour card at QualifyingSchool in Thailand earlier this year, had five birdies and oneeagle on the front nine followed by three birdies and onebogey on the back.