Sukhman Singh of Noida (left) holds up his All India Amateur Championship trophy along with runner-up Harman Sachdeva of Haryana at Kolkata’s Tollygunge Club on Sunday. Image courtesy IGU.
By Rahul Banerji
Noida golfer Sukhman Singh emerged a dominant winner of the 124th Amateur Golf Championship of India at Kolkata’s Tollygunge Club on Sunday.
The 19-year-old defeated Harman Sachdeva by a massive 7 up margin with seven holes to go to lift the world’s longest-running amateur matchplay crown, the Indian Golf Union said
It was a comprehensive performance by the teenager who had the issue sealed up by the 27th hole of the 36-hole matchplay final over his rival from Haryana.
Earlier in the month, Lavanya Gupta of Delhi won the All India Ladies and Junior Girls Championship ahead of Haryana’s Ceerat Kang at Jaipur’s Rambagh Golf Club.
While Lavanya recorded scores of 74, 67, 77 and 70 for an 8 over 288 aggregate, Ceerat (72-72-73-73) finished two strokes behind.
Guntas Kaur Sandhu (70-73-77-73) of Chandigarh topped the A and B categories of the IGU-run event while Rajasthan’s Ojaswini Saraswat (74-77-73) won the C category.
Lavanya was also awarded the Billoo Sethi Trophy for the best 36-hole strokeplay total.
All-round play
With a hot putter and an impressive long game, Sukhman attacked the flags from the start of the final.
He was all square till the sixth hole before going 4 up after 12 holes and remained twpo ahead after the first 18 holes.
Sukhman’s father Simarjeet Singh is a former India no. 1 amateur and three-time winner of the Sri Lankan Amateur as well as IGU Mid-Amateur champion.
Sachdeva came back in the second 18 and cut the Noida golfer’s lead to three till the 23rd hole, Sukhman was at his dominant best thereafter sinking birdie after birdie to go 6 up by the 25th hole.
When he went 7 up after 29, the tournament director declared him the winner of the event as the lead over Sachdeva had become unassailable.
“It still feels like a dream, one has to pinch me even though in reality I have won,” Sukhman said later.
Proud moment
“I have been working my whole life to get there but to finally do it is amazing. It is a proud moment for me as well as my family.
“My father is the one who kept pushing me and kept believing in me when I myself didn’t. So, it is a time for me and my family to rejoice,” the champion added.
On his strategy going into the final round, Sukhman said: “I always knew this was not an 18-hole match and I have to sustain it for 36 holes.
“So, even if I lose out a couple of holes I had a lot many holes to make a comeback. Also, I didn’t want Harman in the final as he is a tough competitor.
“I kept attacking to get ahead and the tactic paid dividends at the end. My driving and putting were both good and that helped.”
Before the Kolkata outing, Sukhman won the IGU Rajasthan Amateur and was runner-up at the Andhra Pradesh Amateur event. He also finished fourth at the South African Amateur strokeplay event earlier this year.
Also read: Well-supported NGC Diwali Cup draws enthusiastic response
Discover more from Tee Time Tales
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.