Mukesh Kumar wins Hindu Open with ease
Mukesh Kumar shot his fourth successive round in the sixties en route to his first title of the 2002-03 season of the Hero Honda Indian Golf Tour when he won the Rs 7-lakh The Hindu Open, which concluded at the par-72 Cosmo-TNGF course in Chennai on Saturday.
The 34-year-old pro from Mhow was a wire-to-wire leader and shot a five-under 67 on the final day to aggregate 18-under 270. That gave him a five-stroke victory over Feroz Ali of Kolkata who closed with a three-under 69 for a four-day tally of 13-under 275.
Digvijay Singh of Meerut, the new superstar of the Hero Honda Indian Golf Tour, shot his second successive 67 to finish third at 278, three strokes adrift of Ashok Kumar (Delhi) and Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Kolkata).
The victory earned Mukesh a handsome cheque of Rs 1,13,400, while the Kolkata pro was richer by Rs 78,400. It was a just reward for Mukesh, who won the Mahindra Champion Golfer of the Year award for last three seasons.
In the process, he also obliterated the previous winning tally at Cosmo-TNGF Course, which was 16-under achieved by several golfers. Mukesh thus holds the course record of 9-under 63, as well as the four-day aggregate record at this venue.
"I am happy to win my first title of the season. It was a frustrating time. I missed a title narrowly twice before," said Mukesh who had finished joint second in the TNGF Open three weeks ago. "I hope to win the next two tournaments too down South," he added.
Meanwhile CV Yudhvir bagged the title in the amateur's section while B Gurunath finished as runner-up. Both finished with an identical score of 295 but the former won on countback.
Veteran Basad Ali shared some of the spotlight when he made a hole-in-one on the fourth hole. This was the fourth ace scored during the season. The perfect 9-iron shot also landed the Kolkata pro a Hero Honda Passion bike, an award instituted by the Tour sponsors Hero Honda Motors for the first player to score a hole-in-one in any Tour event.
Mukesh started the day three strokes ahead of Feroz. But while his arch rival could not convert some excellent birdie opportunities, Mukesh simply raced ahead banking on his trusted putter and some immaculate iron play.
A 10-footer birdie putt on the fifth hole was the highlight of Mukesh's six birdies. He birdied the second, fifth, sixth, seventh, 13th and 16th holes and had a solitary bogey on the 11th. Once Mukesh opened a four-stroke lead at the turn, he eschewed all risks. He was also unlucky on a couple of
occasions where he missed birdies from very close distance.
Oblivious to the leading group's progress, Digvijay marched on displaying some superb driving and putting skills. Missing a narrow birdie on the first, he made consecutive birdies on the next two holes. The other birdies came on the sixth, 16th and 18th, the last resulting from a superb chip-in.
"Though I got a good score today, my game was in much better shape yesterday. I am happy with the third place finish. But for the second day
where I played two-over, I should have given Mukesh a run for the money,"
said the 30-year-old pro.
RESULTS (after 72 holes):
270 _ Mukesh Kumar (66,68,69,67); 275 _ Feroz Ali
(67,69,70,69); 278 _ Digvijay Singh (70,74,67,67); 281 _ Ashok Kumar
(70,67,70,74), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (68,71,72,70); 283 _ Rafiq Ali
(69,70,71,73); 284 _ Indrajit Bhalotia (73,68,72,71); 285 _ Basad Ali
(74,71,71,69), Gaurav Ghei (69,74,73,69), Ali Sher (77,69,68,71); 288 _
Vinod Kumar (68,73,75,72), Rahul Ganapathy (73,69,72,74);
Amateurs: 295 _ CV Yudhvir (72,71,71,81), B Gurunath (74,68,79,74); 297 _ L Selvadurai
(76,72,76,73)
Earlier reports
Mukesh Kumar shoots six-under 66
Mukesh Kumar maintains lead
