Vijay Kumar rides away
with Hero Honda Open
Placed at eight-under at the 18th tee, Jyoti Randhawa was a picture of confidence and concentration and looked very much the front-runner winner. Then came the par-3 eighth hole, where he went into the
water twice. He came out with a quadruple bogey, and those four dropped
strokes handed the advantage to Vijay Kumar. The wily champion from
Lucknow did not fritter away the advantage to grab Hero Honda Open South
2002 title, the second event of the Hero Honda Tour.
Yet, there were many twists and turns in the last few holes. Vijay came to
the 17th tee leading the field at eight-under and one behind him was Gaurav
Ghei, who played superbly through the day. As Ghei teed off from the 18th at
seven-under, Vijay went into the bunker and dropped a stroke at the
17th. That temporarily tied the two leaders.
But when Vijay came to the 18th tee, news trickled in that Ghei had
three-putted the 18th and dropped a stroke to finish the tournament
six-under. All that Vijay needed was a par to take home the trophy and the
cheque of Rs 1,62,000.
Before that Yusuf Ali, in the seond group, too dropped a stroke on the 18th
and finished at five-under.
Meanwhile, in the lead group, Jyoti Randhawa, who said that his hitting on
the final day was the best this whole week, clawed his way back to
five-under after that nightmarish eighth. Then his second shot from the
fairway was a beauty and that gave him a birdie chance to go six-under. He
duly got that, but Vjay now had to get the ball into the cup in two from
almost 40 feet. Vijay did not make a mistake and a little later with a par
fromt four feet, he grabbed his first title of the year.
Ghei and Randhawa tied for the second place and took back Rs. 87, 500 each.
Ghei, who started the day in the third group at the start of the day,
finished the final day at three-under 69.
"I am happy with the second
position finish though I would have loved to enter the play-off," said Ghei,
whose bogey on the final hole was his only flaw of the day.
"I am quite happy with my performance. It always gives you an extra kick
when you play good and also win the tournament," said an elated Vijay, who
shot birdies on the 6th, 7th before bogeying the 17th and finishing off with
a par.
Despite the joint second finish, Jyoti was a happy man.
"Coming after a five-month lay-off, I am happy that I am hitting well. Though I have a bit
of pain in my shoulder, I am getting back my swing. I am happy as far as I
am getting under-par scores," said the 30-year-old pro from Delhi.
"Yeah I lost my concentration on the eighth but thank God, I was back into the game
on the back nine," added Randhawa, who had birdies on the 4th, 5th, 14th,
16th and 18th.
Apart from the grave mistake on the eighth, Randhawa also had
a bogey on the 15th.
Local lad S Madaiah returned the best card of the day with a 4-under
68 to finish joint sixth overall.
"It was a good round today. But for a bad
beginning on the first hole where I bogeyed, I had a wonderful round," said
the 21-year-old, who is also known as `hole-in-one Madaiah' for bagging the
Hero Honda Passion bike in Mumbai last year.
Meanwhile, David D Souza finished as the topper amongst the amateurs. The
caravan moves to Chennai for the Rs One million Hero Honda TNGF Open from August 14 to 18.
The top scores:
Pros: 281 Vijay Kumar (70, 70, 70, 71); 282 Gaurav Ghei (70, 69, 74, 69)
Jyoti Randhawa (70, 69, 71, 72); 283 Yusuf Ali (72, 67, 72, 72); 285 Arjun
Singh (74, 70, 72, 69); 287 Shiv Prakash (72, 72, 74, 69); Ashok Kumar (71,
72, 70, 74); Mukesh Kumar (72, 69, 70. 76), 288 S Madaiah (76, 70, 74, 68);
Rohtas Singh (73, 73, 71, 71); 290: Ranjit Singh (71, 75, 72, 72); C
Muniyappa (71, 72, 69, 78); 291: Digvijay Singh (75, 72, 70, 74); 292: Uttam
Singh Mundy (73, 75, 73, 71); Pappan (73, 74, 73, 72).
Amateurs: 302 David D Souza (78, 73, 80, 71); 332 Prem Bhatia (81, 83, 84,
84)
Earlier reports
Vijay, Randhawa share lead
Yusuf Ali sets KGA course ablaze
Randhawa in four-way lead
