By Rahul Banerji
Noida Golf Course’s juniors turned in solid performances at the 8th JTP tournament on Boxing Day with Arin Ahuja returning a sub-par card to win the Boys Advanced B group.
Other winners on the day on a sunny day at the NGC were Arjun Gulati, Aditya Joshi, Rishika Tomar, Khushi Dawar, Vanya Bansal, Mallika Ahluwalia, Suryaansh Gulati, Kahav Chauhan and Aaliya Bairoliya.
Results:
Advanced A+ Boys: Arjun Gulati 77, Sachin Chouhan 79, Anand Sapra and Rishika Tomar (girls winner)
Advanced A Boys: Aditya Joshi 89, Islaam 91, Atirath Deb Roy, Mallika Ahluwalia (girls winner)
Advanced B Boys: Arin Ahuja 71, Akshat Sharma 80, Vinamra Anand, Ayush Pannu. Girls: Khushi Dawar, Anahita Singh
Advanced C Girls: Vanya Bansal 84, Serena Khanna 88; Boys: Suryaansh Gulati 85, Ishaan Sahwney 86
Advanced D Boys: Kahav Chauhan 70, Udai Aditya Middha 78; Girls: Aaliya Bairoliya 85, Nora Beniwal 85.
Aman Raj on song
Meanwhile, maiden PGTI winner Aman Raj shot a seven-under 64 including an eagle to total nine-under 133 for 36 holes for fifth place after the second round of the Asian Tour Qualifying School Final Stage at Hua Hin in Thailand on Thursday.
Aman who played one of his best rounds as a professional on the Asian Tour, was two shots behind leader Poom Pattaropong (67-64, 131).
Three others, Christoffer Baumann (64-68), Choo Tze Huang (65-67) an Zach Murray (68-64) were tied second at 10-under 132.
Patna player Raj, who turned professional in 2016 and went on to top the Professional Golf Tour of India Q School that year, finished fifth at the 2018 Panasonic Open India, his best result so far on the Asian Tour. But he failed to secure his card as he finished 107th on the 2018 Asian Tour Habitat for Humanity Standings.
While Aman Raj was the best Indian, Chiragh Kumar (65-69) was eight-under 134 and tied ninth. Among other Indians, Veer Ahlawat (69-66) was T17, Gaurav Pratap Singh (69-68) T29, and Amardip Malik (68-70), Abhijit Chadha (66-72) are T-39.
Teenager Aadil Bedi (67-72) and Samarth Dwivedi (70-69) were T53, Karandeep Kochhar (67-73) was T70, Shankar Das (73-68) T89 and Kshitij Naveed Kaul (75-67) T108.
The top 140 and ties made the 36-hole cut and the next cut will come after 72 holes following which the top 70 and ties will play for the cards which will be given to Top-35 and ties, who will get priority for spots.
Steady run
Aman, who was with his friend Shubhankar Sharma when the latter won the Order of Merit in Jakarta a few days ago, said, “I’ve been playing decent golf and have been trying to score well, which I managed to do today.
“I just want to go with the flow and take whatever comes my way. It has been one of the best seasons since I turned professional.
“I finished sixth on the PGTI and I won my first professional tournament in Jaipur and also finished second in Bangalore. So it has been going pretty okay and it would be wonderful to top it all with an Asian Tour card this week.”
He added, “I’ve got a few starts on the Asian Tour and I hope to take all those experience and make the best use of it. I played a lot of junior golf with Shubhankar and I was happy to hang out with him in Jakarta recently.
“He has been playing so well and it’s really motivating to see him do well and follow likewise.”
Amandeep Johl, Sunit Chawrasia, Arjun Prasad, Manu Gandas, Divyanshu Bajaj and Tapy Ghai missed the cut.
Also read: Arjun Bhati tops Kid World Golf event in Malaysia
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