KOLAR: Mohd Azhar carded a one-under 71 to claim his maiden professional title at the second edition of the INR 1 crore Kolar Open at Zion Hills Golf County on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The 27-year-old Hyderabad golfer (70-68-70-71) finished at nine-under 279 to secure a two-shot victory. He collected the winner’s cheque of INR 15 lakh and climbed seven places from 17th to 10th in the 2026 DP World PGTI Order of Merit, taking his season’s earnings to INR 35,14,675. Chandigarh’s Angad Cheema (73-68-67-73), a four-time winner on the tour, and Delhi’s Shaurya Bhattacharya (68-67-71-75), a three-time winner, shared second place at seven-under 281.
It was another close finish at Zion Hills for Bhattacharya, who also finished runner-up in the inaugural edition last year, two shots behind Kshitij Naveed Kaul.
Azhar, who joined the professional tour in 2020, began the final round two shots behind Bhattacharya. He stayed patient through testing spells of wind and rain and created enough opportunities to move ahead as the tournament reached its decisive stage.
“Today was very good and I’m extremely happy with the way I played,” said Azhar. “The conditions were difficult with the wind and rain, but I stayed patient and focused on finding greens in regulation.”
Azhar reached the par-five second in two shots and made a comfortable two-putt birdie. He then struck his approach close for a tap-in birdie on the fourth.
One of the biggest moments of his round arrived on the 12th, where he holed a putt from around 30 to 35 feet for birdie.
“I created several birdie opportunities and managed to convert enough of them,” he said. “The long putt on the 12th was one of the highlights. On the back nine, I tried to play solidly and make pars whenever a birdie opportunity was not available.”
The victory completed a significant step forward for Azhar, whose previous best result on the DP World PGTI was a tied-second finish at the Boulders Classic in April.
Gurugram’s Veer Ahlawat (71-71-69-71), the 2024 DP World PGTI Rankings champion, finished alone in fourth place at six-under 282.
Defending champion Kshitij Naveed Kaul (73-75-66-69) of Delhi and Badal Hossain (69-72-69-73) shared fifth place at five-under 283.
Current DP World PGTI Order of Merit leader Saptak Talwar (72-71-70-74), who spent the summer competing on the HotelPlanner Tour, finished 10th at one-under 287.