Jyoti Randhawa returned a card of 72 and at two-over 282, finished at 17th position in the Golf Nippon Series JP Cup event, played at the par-70, Toyko Yomiuri CC, Japan.

The tournament was restricted to winners on the Japanese PGA Tour's 2003 season and the top-25 golfers on the  current season's Order of Merit.

Tetsuji Hiratsuka ran away with the title courtesy a final round 67, which handed him a tournament tally of 16-under 264.

Toshimitzu Izawa finished second at 267, while Hiroyuki Fujita occupied the third place at 268.

Randhawa has played consistent golf all week, but failed to produce that extra bit required to finish higher up the leaderboard in an event of the standard of the Nippo Series. 

A Rookie on the Japanese PGA Tour, he can however go back with a sense of satisfaction about his performance on the second richest Tour in the world, which included a well deserved win at the Suntory Open, at Chiba in September this year.

The final round saw the 31-year old Gurgaon golfer start the day with a birdie.  A bogey on the fourth, however, put him back on the starting block.

On his back nine, Randhawa dropped shots on the tenth, 11th and 14th but a birdie on the 17th saved him from further blushes. What will however haunt him are the 35 putts he took to complete his round.

"My putting let me down," was all the golfer had to say.

The winner played a simple round with birdies on the sixth, 11th and 13th, handing him a card of 67.

Scores (after 72 holes): 264_ Tetsuji Hiratsuka(66,68,63,67); 267_ Toshimitsu Izawa(67,65,68.67); 268_ Hiroyuki Fujita(69,67,66,66); 269_David Smail(66,66,71,66); 271_ Taichi Teshima(66,65,70,70); 274_ Kiyoshi Murota(66,69,69,70), Keiichiro Fukabori(69,69,67,69), Steven Conran(71,70,67,66); 275_ Soushi Tajima(68,68,69,70); 276_Hideto Tanihara(67,69,70,70).