Fitzpatrick denies Chacarra rare honour; creates history by winning Hero Indian Open

Alex Fitzpatrick received the Hero Indian Open Trophy from Dr Pawan Munjal, Executive Chairman of Hero MotoCorp. 

Anand Krishnaswamy

Gurugram: Alex Fitzpatrick won the Hero Indian Open with a stunning back nine on the final round. The Englishman carded 3-under 69 on the final day as defending champion Eugenio Chacarra suffered a late collapse with bogeys starting the 15th,16th and 17th holes.

He squandered what was a four stroke lead at the start of the final round. This victory by Fitzpatrick denied Chacarra the chance to become the fourth player in history to have defended the title at the Hero Indian Open.

Fitzpatrick (70-68-72-69) had a final total of 9-under par while Eugenio Chacarra (67-69-70-75) totalled 7-under par.

OP Chouhan and Manoj S were the top Indians in the field at T-43. Chouhan (73-71-73-81) the experienced campaigner and 18 year old Manoj (76-70-76-76) closed the week with a score of 10-over par. Kshitij Naveed Kaul was the third Indian who made the cut. Kaul (73-75-77-82) finished the week T-64 with a total of 19-over par.

Fitzpatrick, who was T-17 last year, won the Hero Indian Open one week after his older brother Matt Fitzpatrick won the Valspar Championship in Florida on the PGA Tour. The Fitzpatrick brothers become the first set of brothers in professional golf to win a title in consecutive weeks on two different tours.

Fitzpatrick said, “It feels amazing, I feel a little more composed now than I was on the green. I’ve put in a lot of hard work and had a lot of doubts, I feel like I really stuck with it, especially over the past couple of years.”

He added, “It’s great to join my brother Matt as a winner on the DP World Tour. It can be hard sometimes when you’re constantly chasing someone’s accolades but luckily it’s my brother, so it’s not horrific. It’s extremely nice to join him in the winners’ ranks and hopefully I can continue to push on. I idolise him so just trying to be like him in every way so hopefully we can keep doing well.”

Fitzpatrick started the final day with early bogeys on the third and fourth holes before finding his rhythm on the sixth hole as he made eight birdies in the next 12 holes and had opened up a lead of four strokes heading into the final hole. Fitzpatrick made eight birdies in his final round along with three bogeys and one double bogey. Five of his eight birdies came on the back nine and came between the 11th and the 17th. He had a four-shot cushion on the final hole and despite a double bogey on the 18th he won by two over Chacarra, whose back nine came in 39.

Three players, South African MJ Daffue (73) seeking to win on the DP World Tour a week after triumphing at the DP World PGTI Open on the Hotel Planner Tour, was tied for third with Frenchman Ugo Coussaud (69) and a resurgent Englishman Andy Sullivan (71), who all finished a 5-under 283.

Fitzpatrick and Chacarra were both top ranked amateurs with WAGR ranks of seventh and second respectively before turning pro within weeks of each other back in 2022. Keita Nakajima who won the Hero Indian Open in 2024 and was denied the title defence last year by Eugenio Chacarra was the top ranked amateur in 2022 and also turned pro in 2022.

Chacarra was the sole leader by four strokes coming into the final round but he began with a bogey. Even at the turn of the round still had a three stroke lead over Alex Fitzpatrick who was placed second on the leaderboard. Fitzpatrick would make three consecutive birdies on the 11th, 12th and 13th holes to be one shot behind Chacarra.

Then when Fitzpatrick birdied the 15th and Chacarra bogeyed, the Englishman went ahead for the first time and stayed clear till the finish.

On the 16th hole Fitzpatrick made birdie while Chacarra dropped a shot while Fitzpatrick made his fourth birdie of the back nine to become the sole leader. Bogeys on the 17th and 18th by Chacarra as Fitzpatrick made his eighth birdie of the round on the 17th saw the Englishman consolidate the lead to four strokes with one hole left to play in the round. The four stroke lead would be enough to allow Alex Fitzpatrick to secure his first DP World Tour title by two strokes despite a double bogey on the 18th as Chacarra made par.

The only other time a pair of siblings have won on consecutive weeks is when Min Woo Lee won the Macau open in 2023 on the Asian Tour and his older sister Minjee Lee won the LPGA BMW Championship the week after.

For the record, the Danish twins, Rasmus and Nicolai Højgaard became the first brothers to win in back-to-back weeks on the DP World Tour in 2021. Rasmus won the Omega European Masters and the following week, Nicolai won the Italian Open.