El Jadida, June 1 (IANS) Thailand’s Tanapat Pichaikool was crowned as the winner at the USD 160,000 AM Green IGPL Morocco Rising Stars 2026, as he won by two shots over Bangladesh veteran Siddikur Rahman.

The 26-year-old who led by two shots going into the third round after a magnificent eight-under-par 64 round in the third round grinded it out for a 2-under 70 and kept his margin intact.

Teen golfer Kartik Singh was the top Indian with a final round of 1-under 71 despite a late double bogey and a bogey on the back nine. He finished just outside Top-10 at Tied-12th.

With rounds of 71-66-71-71, he was under par all four days and totalled 9-under for the week. Kartik had three birdies in his first 10 holes, at which point he was in line for a top-5 finish, but a double bogey on the Par-3 13th and a bogey on Par-4 16th ruined the chance, though he did close with a birdie on the 18th.

He said, “I’m happy with my performance this week. The course was playing tough with strong winds and tricky greens, so I’m happy to have shot under par in all 4 rounds, especially my second round, 6-under, which put me in the top 5 heading into the weekend.

“I would have liked to have had a better last two rounds and be contending for the trophy. But I’m still happy with the 12th place finish in a strong field with many Asian Tour players.

“And being the top Indian was a nice bonus in a strong Indian contingent in this tournament with all of the IGPL players plus few of our players of the Asian tour. So I’m happy that I was able to come out on top out of all the Indians, and I’m hoping that next time I’ll be able to come out on top overall.

The two next best Indians were IGPL players, Trishul Chinnappa (69-61-72-71) and Kartik Sharma (74-69-75-65), who had a roller-coaster of a week. The duo was Tied-28th at 5-under.

Raghav Chugh (69-70-72-74) had a rough final day with three bogeys against just one birdie and dropped to Tied-35th. Syed Saqib Ahmed (76), who after three fine rounds of 69-70-70 faltered on the final day and slipped to Tied-35th alongside Chugh.

Rashid Khan (71) was T-40, Milind Soni (72) was -42, Arjun. Bhati (76) and Sachin Baisoya (74) were T-46, Samarth Dwivedi (77) was T-49.

Tanapat had a two-shot cushion when his good-looking birdie putt stopped inches short of the cup on the 18th hole. However, the par was good enough to complete a win.

Runchanapong Youprayong (70) started three shots behind Tanapat and finished third at 14-under, while Bangladesh’s Siddikur Rahman jumped ahead of him with a birdie on the last hole in his 67.

The final birdie on the 18th earned Rahman a place in next week’s US$500,000 Bharat Classic, an Asian Tour event at the same Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort venue. The 41-year-old Rahman is a former Asian Tour winner, having won twice. He won the Brunei Open in 2010 and the Hero Indian Open in 2013.

American Henry Chung (67) was in solo fourth place at -13, with the Hong Kong duo of Matthew Cheung (69) and Ho Ho Yue (70).

Tanapat’s last win came on his 25th birthday in November 2024, when he clinched the Toyota Tour Championship. Even though he held the sole lead throughout the final day, he said it wasn’t easy to get over the line.

He said, “I was nervous. For the past five hours, it was all up and down.

Tanapat narrowly missed out on a full card on the Asian Tour last year when he finished 69th in the Order of Merit.

Tanapat added that he was very excited about next week’s Asian Tour event. “Excited, very excited indeed. It’s on the same course, and I feel I know it inside out. I will just try to play the same golf as I did this week, and hopefully, the result is the same again,” he added.

Rahman finished second but was thrilled, as the result will give him a spot in the IGPL Bharath Classic, an Asian Tour event, which follows this event.

The 41-year-old Bangladeshi legend, who is in Morocco with his family, said, “My family is with me, so I really enjoyed my work without any expectation. I thought I would not get into the next two tournaments because I was so down on the waiting list.”

Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort, a stunning venue on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, will also host next week’s IGPL Bharath Classic, a USD 500,000 tournament on the Asian Tour. That will be followed by the USD 2 million International Series Morocco.

–IANS

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