Arjun Singh lifts title

India's Arjun Singh displayed nerves of steel as he fired a solid one-under 71 on Sunday to win the biggest golf tournament on the domestic tour by a comfortable four-shot margin.

Singh finished the PGA Championship of India with an aggregate score of 17-under 271, which equalled the four-round Delhi Golf Club record set by Shiv Prakash two years ago.

The 32-year-old who led from start to finish collected 486,000 rupees ($10,130) for his effort.

For someone who was thinking of an alternative career while battling injuries less than a year ago, Singh has come a long way this season.

He is currently in 22nd place on the highly competitive Asian PGA tour and won an Indian event just two weeks ago.

"I'm delighted. This is certainly the best I've played at any tournament," Singh said later.

"I had to make sure I stayed motivated because no one was challenging me. If you think it's all over, you can easily drop shots on this golf course."

On Sunday, he started six shots ahead of Uttam Singh Mundy and seven ahead of Mukesh Kumar, both of whom began with birdies on the first hole to sound their challenge.

But Mundy dropped shots at the fourth, sixth and 12th holes, where his short game momentarily deserted him.

Despite birdies on the eighth, 10th, 15th, 17th and 18th holes he could never put up a fight.

A twice-winner of this event, Mundy ended up firing a three-under 69 to finish in second place with an aggregate of 13-under 275.

Kumar, who followed up his opening birdie with birdies on the second, fifth, 12th, 15th and 18th holes, may have been able to challenge Singh but for a demoralising double-bogey on the 10th where his wayward tee-shot landed in a bush.

He finally sank a tricky four-footer for par on the final hole to grab third place with 10-under 278, one shot ahead of last year's champion Jyoti Randhawa.

But Singh was a cut above the rest.

He played safe on the front-nine, birdieing only the seventh with a 20-footer and added just one more birdie when he made a chip-putt from the greenside bunker on the par-5 14th.

A bogey on the 18th hole was a dampener of sorts, but Singh's score proved more than adequate in the end.

Leading scores (Indians unless stated):
271 Arjun Singh 64 69 67 71
275 Uttam Singh Mundy 68 70 68 69
278 Mukesh Kumar 66 70 71 71
279 Jyoti Randhawa 71 71 70 67
281 Daniel Chopra (Sweden) 70 69 70 72
283 Harmeet Kahlon 69 71 69 74
285 Gaurav Ghei 69 74 71 71, Shiv Prakash 68 71 73 73, Rohtas Singh 69 70 72 74
286 A.J. Coetsee (South Africa) 73 73 68 72, Ashok Kumar (amateur) 76 68 69 73