Chandigarh, Sept. 13 -- Riding high on an early eagle, a late birdie, and two decades of golfing experience, Gaganjeet Bhullar scored a 2-under 70 in the final round to become the first Indian Premier Golf League (IGPL) tour champion. Bhullar, the winner of 11 Asian Tour titles, which is the most by an Indian, shot three great rounds of 70-71-70 for a 5-under total, finishing two shots ahead of the consistent M Dharma at the Chandigarh Golf Club on Friday. Bhullar took home a whopping cheque of Rs.22.50 lakhs from the prize purse of Rs.1.5 crore. Dharma bagged Rs.15 lakhs and the threesome of Veer Ganapathy, Kartik Sharma and Shaurya Binu earned around Rs.8.7 lakh each. Dharma, who finished second, gave a tough fight to Bhullar as he shot 70-75-68 with a 5-under back nine, but his two bogeys on the front nine cost him dearly. Left-handed debutant Ganapathy (72-72-70), son of former pro and now coach, Rahul Ganapathy, was tied for third alongside another southpaw, Kartik Sharma (73-73-68) who produced a 4-under 68, the equal best round of the tournament, and Binu (69-72-73), finished in a tie for third. Binu had held at least a share of the lead for the first 36 holes Another young player, Neil Jolly and the experienced Kapil Kumar were tied for sixth at 1-under for the week as only seven players came under par on the challenging, rain-soaked course. Three players, Dharma, Kartik and Sunhit Bishnoi (75-73-68 for 8th place) produced 68s. Kartik Singh was tied ninth alongside Aman Raj, Sanju Kumar, Sachin Baisoya, Harendra Gupta and Pukhraj Singh Gill. Jahanvi Bakshi, making a comeback after two years of injuries, was the top woman finisher with rounds of 73-71-75. She was placed 19th in a field of 54 that included 38 men pros, 10 women pros and six amateurs. Bhullar, who will also play next week in the second IGPL event before leaving for the International Series outside India, was happy with his game and thrilled with the tournament. He said, "I am proud and thrilled to have created history by becoming the first-ever IGPL Tour winner. It is a new chapter in Indian golf, and I am proud to be part of it. "The Tour has been created with a lot of care and brings together women pros, young pros and amateurs onto the same platform as the top pros. This will help them and hopefully I can inspire some of these youngsters, just like Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa and Arjun Atwal and other seniors inspired me." He added, "Right now, we have very few Indians on Asian Tour with a Tour card, and I am one of them. There was a time when we had more than a dozen Indians and a lot of wins came India's way. I hope the new stars like Veer Ganapathy, Kartik Singh, Krish Chawla and even Shaurya Binu, and others we saw this week will soon get onto the Asian Tour. It's always great to win, that's what we pros play for, but to get these young ones to fly the Indian flag high is my goal and a big motivation." The next IGPL event will be held at the Jaypee Greens, Greater Noida, from September 17 to 19....