India's Anirban Lahiri wrapped up his challenge at Asia's richest tournament with a two-under-par 70 amid challenging conditions at the $8.5 million WGC-HSBC Champions here Sunday.
Lahiri's four-day total of even-par 288 saw him finish tied for 28th place and brought about mixed emotions for the five-time Asian Tour winner, who was playing in his first World Golf Championship event this week.
While he was left to reflect on a poor short game, the 27-year-old Indian knows he has the game to take on the world's best players again.
"I wouldn't say I'm pleased with my performance as I came into this week playing some good golf. I'm still playing good golf but it's just my short game and putting that let me down this week.
"All of us (Asian players) who are here are good enough to win this event but for that you got to show up and play your best game and have everything working. I didn't putt well enough to get up there but I've shown I can compete against the best players in the world," said Lahiri.
Lahiri started the day staring at a massive 13-shot gap that separated him from Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell who led after the third round.
But he showed character by making up ground quickly with a flawless outward-nine at the Sheshan International Golf Club.
"It wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination yesterday but it was a little better today. The greens were slightly softer thanks to the rain yesterday. I got off to a good start today and I could have shot an even better number but I'm happy that I got the bogeys off the card on the front-nine.
"The back-nine was not as great as I had couple of lapse of concentration and dropped a few shots," said Lahiri who then traded three bogeys and two birdies in his back-nine.
Lahiri will attempt to earn his European Tour card at their Qualifying School next week but has vowed to return to the Asian Tour next month where the Order of Merit race is expected to go down the wire.
"The Order of Merit race is still open and that makes for some exciting golf. Hopefully I can turn up and play some of my best golf and chase David (Lipsky) down," said Lahiri.
