USC rally to win Grover Trophy; Shubhankar back in action on home tour

By Rahul Banerji

United Services Club scripted a dramatic comeback to win a playoff against Willingdon Sports Club Gymkhana and clinch the 23rd Grover Vineyards inter-club golf championship at the U.S Club Golf Course in Mumbai on Sunday.

Havng dominated the first day and the early session on the final day, Willingdon were the clear leaders on 29 points, with US Club trailing them by seven points. The hosts then swept the afternoon foursomes to come from behind and level scores at 34-all to take the issue into a playoff.

Solid finish

Keshav Mishra of USC completely dominated Kushal Thakker of WSC in the playoffs to help USC continue their winning streak on home turf.

Earlier, in the singles, Willingdon Sports Club opened on a winning note with Jamsheed Mehta defeating V.M. Shah of the US Club to open a further two-point lead on the overnight score.

Kushaal Thackersey, Ashish Agarwal and Sahil Parikh then won their respective ties helping Willingdon race to 29 points. Poona Golf Club were in a much better position in the singles with Aaron Rocky, Pranav Mardikar, Rajat Budharaj and Jay Shirke winning their ties and helping their team maintain second place on 23 points while hosts US Club were a close third on 22 points.

BPGC had an ordinary day on the field barring youngster Ahaan Nath who stood out with his solid play where he defeated Rahul Divan of Willingdon to gain two valuable points. BPGC trailed the field on 17 points at the end of the singles matches.

Comeback

It was at this point that US Club launched their amazing comeback in the foursomes, winning all their games to drag their tally to 34 points. Willingdon, looking strong till then, found themselves in a spot of bother and managed to pick up only 2.5 points that left them on a 31.5 aggregate and a must-win match to go.

Jay Seth and Navroze Marshall duly beat Avnish Kumar and A.S. Mann of BPGC to level scores and take the event to the playoff, in which the hosts held their nerve when most needed.

Final results

1. United Services Club 34 (singles 10.5, foursomes 16.5, fourballs 7) won in sudden death playoff 

2. Willingdon Sports Club 34 (singles 11.5, foursomes 8, fourballs 9.5)

3. Poona Golf Club: 25.5 (singles 11.5, foursomes 8.5, fourballs 5.5)  

4. Bombay Presidency Golf Club: 24.5 (singles 11.5, foursomes7.5, fourballs 5.5).

Sharma star attraction at Players Championship

Meanwhile, Shubhankar Sharma will be the stellar attraction at the Professional Golf Tour of India’s Players Championship that tees off at the Classic Golf & Country Club on Tuesday, carrying a prize purse of Rs. 30 lakh.

Shubhankar, two-time winner on the European Tour, reigning Asian Tour Order of Merit champion and the highest-ranked Indian in the world at 118, returns to play on the PGTI after over a year, having won on his last appearance, the 2017 McLeod Russel Tour Championship, the year-ending event staged at the RCGC in Kolkata.

Other leading names in the field for week are Rashid Khan, Udayan Mane, Honey Baisoya, Mukesh Kumar, Shamim Khan and Karandeep Kochhar, among others.

As always, the overseas push will come from the Sri Lankan trio of Anura Rohana, N. Thangaraja and Mithun Perera besides Australia’s Kunal Bhasin and Bangladesh’s Md Zamal Hossain Mollah.

Shubhankar tees off at 12.10 pm in Round 1 on Tuesday.

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