Japan’s Naoki Sekito endured a nervy finish to win by two shots in the OB Golf Championship at Gunung Geulis, maintaining his overnight lead and holding off a hard-charging Aaron Wilkin to secure victory with a final tournament score of 199.

“I can’t explain how happy I feel right now,” said Sekito after his round. “The last couple of holes I wasn’t that nervous but my putting wasn’t good today.

“I knew some guy in front of me had finished at nine-under so I wanted to go with 11-under to the last hole because I knew that I was going to be so nervous for the last putt.”

Opening with a string of eight pars, Sekito (68) posted his first birdie on the ninth hole, just as Thailand’s Ekpharit Wu had drawn level and was threatening to edge in front.

Playing in the final group, both birdied the 10th but two holes later their fortunes diverged, with Sekito scoring birdie on the par five 12th.

Wu could only make bogey, the first of five dropped shots he would face in the following four holes, which saw him drop to a share of fifth place in the US$75,000 Asian Development Tour event.

Sekito was also not without a closing stretch wobble on holes 14 and 15, making consecutive bogeys just as Australia’s Wilkin, winner of the BRG Open Golf Championship in Vietnam earlier this month, was posting the lowest score of the day with a flawless, seven-birdie 63.

“Until hole 14 I didn’t miss any greens today, then on 14 I was in the bunker of the left side, my par putt was about 10 feet but I didn’t make it, which was OK because it was a difficult putt.

“On 15, I hit a six iron, good shot, less than 15 feet. Actually an easy putt up hill but I hit it too hard, then five feet back I missed. After that I was worried because 16 is one of the difficult holes but I knew I could not change two bogeys so I tried to forget about it,” he explained.

“By the time I hit my tee shot on 16 I had forgotten already, that was the reason I could make birdie on 17,” he added.

Wilkin, who started the day four groups behind the leaders, would have been hoping for a strong performance to repeat his success in Vietnam, but a difficult second day put paid to his chances of outright victory.
He ended the day in a tie for second with Thailand’s Denwit Boriboonsub (68) on 201 strokes over the three rounds on the Gunung Geulis West Course.

In solo fourth spot was Thailand’s Varanyu Rattanaphiboonkij (64) who finished on 202, followed by compatriots Vanchai Luangnitikul (68) and Wu (70) and China’s Andy Zhang (70) one shot behind on 203.

In T14 position and finishing as the best-placed Malaysian the week was 25-year-old Ervin Chang on three-under-par 207. One shot adrift in T16 (-2) was Muhammad Danial Faidz, while Amir Nazrin and Khor Kheng Hwai settled for T29 (+1) and T49 (+6) spots respectively.

The next round of the 2023 season takes place from October 4-6 with the OB Golf Invitational presented by Sentual Highlands Golf Club.

The US$ 70,000 event will be played over three rounds at Sentul Highlands and is the eighth event so far this year on the Asian Development Tour.