McGrane happy with second place

Irish golfer Damien McGrane is confident of building on his career-best finish at the Indian Masters after returning home for a well-earned break following a hectic month.

The 36-year-old, whose third-place finishes at the 2006 KLM Open and last year's French Open were previous best performances, claimed the runners-up berth on Sunday at the inaugural event in Delhi as India's SSP Chowrasia claimed his maiden European Tour victory by two strokes.

The finish moved McGrane into 10th place on the European Order of Merit following his seventh event, but after four weeks in Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Dubai and India, he is ready for a two-week break before returning to Delhi for the Johnnie Walker Classic at the DLF Golf and Country Club.

"When I reflect on my week, I played an awful lot of good golf and I'm happy with how I played. I could have won, I could have done a lot of things, but I'm happy with second place," said McGrane.

"Fair play to the winner, he must have played great golf and being from India in front of his home crowd, he'll learn a lot, so I'm not going to take that from him. I played my best and I was reasonably solid and I'm happy with my performance.

"I'm happy with second place and the start of the season is a great time to have a second place, so I'm happy and content."

McGrane had earlier proved in the best way possible he was not suffering a hangover from last weekend's battle with world number one Tiger Woods at the Dubai Desert Classic - taming the tree-lined Delhi Golf Club with an opening-round, five-under-par 67 to sit two strokes adrift of Indian number one Jyoti Randhawa.

While Randhawa faltered, McGrane claimed the halfway lead with a solid second-round 69, but after his third-round 75 in testing blustery conditions, he began the final round a shot adrift.

A final-day 70 proved not to be enough as Chowrasia carded a sublime 65 to delight the passionate home crowd in the Indian capital.

McGrane made a strong start to his challenge yesterday after reaching the turn in two under par, but he was unable to add to his haul on the way home.

He headed down the final fairway three strokes adrift of Chowrasia after shipping a bogey at the penultimate green before securing sole possession of the runners-up berth with a birdie at the last.

"I bounced back whenever I made bogeys, I made birdies straight away. That seems to be the trademark of my golf," he added. "It's been a difficult week. This was a real test of golf and it should have suited my game. I'll make a few pounds so that's good so I'm happy.

"I played great golf, but SSP played great golf and I'm delighted to see an Indian winner. I'd liked it to have been me but it's good for the future of Indian golf and the European Tour in India."

A victorious Chowrasia was left to dream of further glory to come.

"I have a card until 2010 on the European Tour and I will be playing both in Asia and Europe, but I will probably play more in Europe,'' he said.

"It was hard to get onto the Asian Tour but now it will be a lot easier. First, I want to play on the European Tour and do well and then my target is to get onto the US Tour."