Shanghai: Ace Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri finished another exhausting five-week stretch with a round of one-under 71 and decided to head home for a much-needed break after the USD 8.5 million WGC-HSBC Champions here on Sunday.
Lahiri's four-day total of six-under-par 282 was only enough for him to finish in tied-40th place at Asia's richest tournament where an elite field featuring close to 40 of the world's top 50 players participated at the Sheshan International Golf Club.
Meanwhile India's other representative at the WGC-HSBC Champions, SSP Chawrasia closed the week with a 72 for a share of 46th place.
Late entrant into the WGC-HSBC, Russell Knox made the most of the opportunity that came his way with a superb final round of 68 that saw him post a total 20-under 268 and win by two shots over American Kevin Kisner (70).
"It was a disappointing week and if I were to look back, it was my second round (75) that put a huge dent in my efforts," said Lahiri, the current Asian Tour Order of Merit leader.
Lahiri, who started the year with wins at the Malaysian Open and Hero Indian Open, has decided to skip the BMW Masters in Shanghai next week but will play in the European Tour's season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
Lahiri has at least one more start at the Hero World Challenge in Bahamas in the first week of December.
"It has been a long year and I've been playing at very low energy levels. I'm heading home next week and going to recharge my batteries for the last couple of events. You can't really blame anything (for his disappointing performance this week).
"I just can't say I'm tired or I played badly. I did play well on Saturday so how can you explain that? So it's a combination of a number of factors and fatigue is one of those. I was not 100 per cent fit both mentally and physically. I'm just going to plan my schedule better so that I can be at my best again," said Lahiri.
As for Chawrasia, he moves to Singapore from here. "Basically it was my putting that let me down this week.
I'm going to work on it and hopefully it will be a better week in Singapore (World Classic Championship at Laguna National) next," Chawrasia said.
Knox also became the first Scottish to win a World Golf Championship event and earn his maiden European Tour victory.
Knox had to return to Sheshan International Golf Course at 7.45am this morning to complete the final hole of his third round, which he duly birdied, before beginning his final round with two gains in three holes to establish a lead which he did not relinquish.
The win earned Knox a position in the top 30 of the Official World Golf Ranking. The win also completed a remarkable 10 days for Knox, who only discovered he was in the tournament after JB Holmes withdrew last Thursday.
Kisner birdied the last hole to sign off with a round of 70 and an 18-under par total, while third place was shared between the English duo of Ross Fisher (68) and Danny Willett, who rampaged through the field with a superb round of 62 to narrow the gap on Rory McIlroy in The Race to Dubai Rankings with just two events of the season left.
McIlroy ended a frustrating week on a high note, holing a long birdie putt on the final green to card a round of 66 and take a share of 11th place on 14-under par.
Local hero Li Hao-tong treated his legion of fans to thrills and spills a plenty, closing with a round of 72 which included five birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey seven at the second hole.
Li finished tied seventh alongside Jordan Spieth, who returned to the world number one spot.
