First La Liga Futures competition in Saudi Arabia kicks off March 1

GURUGRAM, INDIA: Ollie Schniederjans completed a remarkable comeback victory at International Series India presented by DLF, in front of a packed audience at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram, just outside Delhi.

The American, lifted by an outrageous chip in for birdie on 13, fired a three-under-par 69 for a four-round aggregate of 10-under.

It gave him a surprise four-shot victory over reigning US Open Champion Bryson DeChambeau, his nearest challenger — in the opening event of the year on the International Series that brought crowds flocking to Gurugram.

The two-time major winner pulled out all the stops with a seven-under par round of 65, but it was not enough to cancel out an eight-shot gap that Schniederjans had built up over him going into the final round, and he finished on six under for the week.

Abraham Ancer of Fireballs GC finished joint third on two under after a level-par final round, alongside reigning International Series Rankings Champion Joaquin Niemann, with only four players finishing under par on the testing Gary Player-designed course.

“It means a lot to me,” said the 31-year-old Schniederjans, ably supported by his brother Ben as caddie this week. “This golf course is very challenging, and back in the day I would have had a hard time out here, so to come out and shoot those scores now, with everything I have been through, my game is a lot better than it ever was. This was proof this week.”

The third round had to be completed this morning, and Schniederjans got off to a great start as he carved out a three-shot lead on seven under.

The field had nine holes to finish after a first shotgun start on Saturday afternoon, and the American birdied his first three holes — 10, 11 and 12 — en route to a 69. He had a five-shot lead at the turn from Kazuki Higa and DeChambeau. That lead became six when he sensationally chipped in for a three on the par-four 13th from a difficult lie to the right of green, where it looked like a bogey would be more likely.

Japan’s Higa (72) had started the final round in second place on four under, but ultimately fell away to T5 on level par after a four-over final round of 76.

The backlog was the result of long delays every day caused by thick fog each morning. In order to complete 72 holes, the organisers switched to shotgun starts for rounds three and four, with players staying in the same pairings.

They started round four immediately after completion of round three and Schniederjans did not let up in pursuit of a morale-boosting victory, with Australian Greg Norman walking the course and watching intently.

And despite a bogey on 17, the American safely made par on 18 to see things out, narrowly missing out on a birdie chip in from the fringe of the green.

Schniederjans’ win is a remarkable one. He had replacement surgery on both hips in 2022 and was out of the game for well over a year.

It was his final attempt to fix a whole host of injury issues which had derailed the career of a player who was ranked the world’s top amateur in 2014 for 41 consecutive weeks. He also won on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2016, the year after turning professional.

Schniederjans was playing this week by virtue of finishing fourth at last year’s LIV Golf Promotions event, with the top-10 players earning playing rights for The International Series.

He just missed out on winning the event in Saudi, which brings a passage onto the LIV Golf League, but having triumphed today he has made the ideal start to The International Series Rankings race, with the champion also earning a berth on the roster.

Speaking out about his long journey back to victory, he said: “It was a long process, it took a lot of patience. I did a lot to change my body and swing, and had to learn a lot through that process.

“There were setbacks that took me years to get to this point. This year has been good, I have been able to be on the course all year for a year now. I’ve been able to put everything together, and I knew something like this was coming.”

Sebastian Munoz of Colombia, Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra and Higa finished T5 on level par, ahead of Australian Kevin Yuan and Chase Koepka in eighth place on one over.

The next event on the Asian Tour is the New Zealand Open from Feb. 27 — March 2, which will be followed by the International Series Macau (March 20-23), the second elevated event of 10 that offers a pathway onto the LIV Golf League.

ABU DHABI: Elena Rybakina has added Italian former player Davide Sanguinetti to her coaching staff and has reiterated her displeasure at the WTA’s decision to provisionally suspend her coach Stefano Vukov for allegedly breaching the tour’s Code of Conduct.

Rybakina ended her trial period with Novak Djokovic’s former coach Goran Ivanisevic following her fourth-round exit from the Australian Open last month and has brought in Sanguinetti to accompany her at tournaments and work with Vukov, who is banned from all sanctioned events pending the WTA’s investigation into his conduct.

Sanguinetti is with Rybakina this week in Abu Dhabi, where the world number five is the top seed and defending champion.

The 2022 Wimbledon winner says she has not been notified by the WTA about a date for the conclusion of the investigation and insists the situation “was not handled well”.

“I don’t know much. It’s a situation I’m not happy with. But it is what it is but for now I don’t know much,” Rybakina told AFP at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open on Sunday.

“I think safeguarding is important but the case with what happened with us I don’t think it was handled well.”

Vukov told The Athletic that he “never abused anyone” and Rybakina feels she is not being heard.

“In the end of the day, I think you need to listen to the player, that’s the most important. Because as I said before there are a lot of comments from people which are also in our environment but they’re making comments not knowing me, not knowing him, and it’s just making a bad look for everyone.”

Rybakina says the coaching partnership with Ivanisevic was on a trial basis and the decision for them to part ways after just a couple of months of working together was mutual.

“We just sat down, we talked, and we decided to go our separate ways. But I think I learned a lot and it’s not easy to find a good collaboration,” explained the 25-year-old Kazakh.

“It of course takes time and everything but that was our decision. We’ll see how this year goes for me. I’m also not such an easy player maybe like some people think, ‘Oh it’s easy with her’, or something, but it’s not really like this.

“I think every person is different and there is no one who is perfect. I can be sometimes stubborn on the court, stubborn on some things, that’s at least my honest opinion.”

While Vukov is banned from joining Rybakina at tournaments, she says they are “communicating of course” and that he and Sanguinetti are always in contact, and spent some time together with her at a recent training block in Dubai post-Australian Open.

“He’s an important person in my career. We started when I was like 200 [in the world]. So it’s a lot of things, on the court, outside of the court, he’s helping out with,” she said of Vukov, who began coaching her when she was a teenager.

“I feel like of course it’s not ideal that he cannot be on the practice courts but at the same time we are finding a way also with help of Davide, his opinion. I hope it’s going to work out. We have a good team in the end of the day.”

Rybakina headlines a competitive field at the WTA 500 tournament in Abu Dhabi that also includes recent Australian Open semi-finalist Paula Badosa, world number 11 Daria Kasatkina, Tunisian star Ons Jabeur, and British wildcard Emma Raducanu.

Main draw action kicks off on Monday with the final taking place on Saturday February 8.