Els, who turned 44 the Thursday of the event, applied the pressure early on with birdies on two, three and six but a bogey on nine halted his momentum. "It was very frustrating. I started off nicely again and then made a soft bogey on nine. I couldn’t afford any mistakes. I needed to keep the pedal on the metal but I made that mistake and I didn’t play the back nine all that well either. Tough weekend but I think Scott was very strong,” said Els, who was making his debut at the Venetian Macau Open.
"I had four shots to make up and four shots is a lot to make up especially with the caliber of Scott. He deserved to win."
The 26-year-old Lahiri charged up the leaderboard to finish second, thanks to one eagle and eight birdies as he tied countryman Amandeep Johl’s course mark set in 2004. The Indian star, who has three wins on the Asian Tour, got to within two shots of Hend during the final round but was still delighted with his strong finish.
"I got off to a great start, holed a 30-footer on the first hole. I played really good right from the start. Yesterday was a similar story but I ran into some trouble on the back nine. I’m glad I kept my cool and played solid in the end," said Lahiri.
"I changed my driver from yesterday. I’ve had major issues controlling the golf ball but I changed my driver and it gave me confidence having a club that I could control better. Hit it close on two to make eagle and kept hitting it close."
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