CLW retain inter-Rly golf title; Rohana wins it in Bangalore

By Rahul Banerji

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) won their fourth all-India Railways Golf Championship title in as many years with a comfortable victory over Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) and South Central Railway (SCR) in Patna over the weekend.

Represented by Debjyoti Ghosh, Sahil Kumar Singh, Vinay Kumar Yadav and Ajit Rawat, the winners totaled 442 points, comfortably ahead of runners-up DLW (468) and SCR (470) in the 63rd edition of the championship.

Sahil Kumar Singh also won the individual (net) event while his team-mate Yadav took the honours in the gross section.

Mohammad Islam of ECR topped the licensed players’ competition ahead of Sandeep Ramlaka of SECR.

The DLW team comprised of Ankit Gupta, Manoj Kumar, Hemant Yadav and S.B. Singh, while SCR were represented by Naren Kumar Singh, Ajay Kumar Bharti, A. Ravi and A.N.S. Rajesh.

The three-day championship was organised by the East Central Railway Sports Association at the historic Patna Golf Club.

Rohana goes wire-to-wire

In Bangalore, Anura Rohana made it a start to finish effort to take home the winner’s cheque by a three-shot margin at the Rs 60 lakh Bengaluru Open Golf Championship on Sunday.

The 45-year-old Sri Lankan returned a one-under-71 in the last round to total 19-under-269 for his sixth professional title and a second win at the KGA.

Patna’s Aman Raj, who came up with the day’s best card of six-under-66, finished second at 16-under-272, his best finish since a maiden PGTI title in Jaipur earlier this year.

Early advantage

Rohana (67-64-67-71), third round leader by five shots, built on massive advantage with an early hat-trick of birdies where he converted from seven to 15 feet.

With a fourth birdie in 11 holes, Rohana looked to have sealed the title as he then led by six shots. A bogey and thereafter a double, however, made it a little harder though in the end he had enough in hand to win and climb to 10^th in the Order of Merit.

Rohana said later, “I just played my own game today and didn’t worry too much about the other contenders. I knew with an overnight five-shot lead, all I needed to do was put my head down and repeat what I had done over the last two days.

“After being four-under through 11, I knew I had it in the bag and was quite relaxed on the course. The bogey and double-bogey didn’t really affect me as none of my rivals really made a serious charge on the back-nine

Next target

“My next aim now is to achieve my best ever rank on the PGTI Order of Merit. I was fourth last year. I want to finish higher than that this year.”

Aman Raj (68-67-71-66) carded a bogey-free 66 on day four to finish three shots behind the winner.

Seventeen-year-old Aadil Bedi (69) of Chandigarh claimed third place, his best finish as a professional so far, at 15-under-273.

Also read: Patna Tiger Aman Raj chalks up maiden PGTI win