By Rahul Banerji
In a neck-to-neck final battle, The A-Team, aided by some top-drawer golf from Asian Games gold medallist Rishi Narain, beat Baale Golf to win the Lloyd Delhi Golf Club League.
At one point, the final was evenly balanced but Narain’s effort along with that of his team mates helped The A-Team to score four wins out of the seven matches.
The A-Team tallied 10.5 points against Baale Golf’s tally of seven. Baale Golf too boasted of an Asian Games gold medallist in Amit Luthra but they could manage only three wins.
In the match for third and fourth places, 2021 winners BMW Deutsche-Motoren outplayed Christie’s Golf with four wins from the scheduled seven.
BMW Deutsche-Motoren tallied 9.5 points as against Christie’s 6.5.
The League, powered by Vredestein Tyres, was played at the par-72 Delhi Golf Club course, featuring 13 days of hard-fought golf and concluded in a grand finale on Saturday evening.
Ahlawat has it easy
In Pune, Gurgaon’s Veer Ahlawat prevailed by three shots at the Pune Open for his second professional trophy.
Veer struck a solid four-under 62 in the final round at the Poona Club Golf Course to tally 19-under 245.
The win also carried Ahlawat up six places on the Tata Steel PGTI Order of Merit to 11th position.
Delhi’s Kapil Kumar finished second on 16-under 248 with a two-under 64 in the final round.
Ahlawat (63-59-61-62), the overnight leader by one shot, made a tentative start with a birdie and bogey on the second and third holes.
The lanky golfer then stepped on the gas with birdies on the seventh, ninth, 10th and 11th to build a comfortable lead.
A bogey on 17 followed by a birdie on 18 helped put his name on the winner’s cheque today.
“My last win as a pro was three years back and I have come close but could never finish it off,” Ahlawat said later.
Paying off
“This win makes me and my team very happy that our hard work has paid off. I am very satisfied with my short game and my chipping specifically, and that I think, played a critical role in my performance.”
Kapil Kumar (59-62-63-64) started on a conservative note birdieing on the fourth, his only gain before he took the turn.
A bogey on seven brought his front nine to level par, and on his back nine, Kapil got a birdie on 11 before squandering it with bogey on 13.
Kumar thereafter recovered with back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15to wrap up his round at two-under 64 for the day.
Mysore’s Yashas Chandra M.S. carded the day’s best of six-under 60 to finish tied third with Sri Lankan N. Thangarajaon 15-under 249.
Manu Gandas and Rashid Khan were tied fifth on 14-under 250, and Kshitij Naved Kaul was seventh on 13-under 251;
Local boy Udayan Mane and Gurgaon’s Kartik Sharma finished tied eighth on 12-under 252. Ludhiana’s Pukhraj Singh Gill and Ajeetesh Sandhu of Chandigarh shared tenth place on 11-under 253.
Also read: Birdie Machine pip Tee Birds by a half point to seal DGCL KO berth
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