It had been a house divided since the clash was set up on Thursday evening; and there were murmurs of the looming play-off as the shadows grew longer today. But as the two Delhi Golf Club old hands reached the first tee box to start the battle all over again at the SRF Matchplay semi-final, the growing gallery buzzed with some other energy.

The collective holds of breath as first Shamim’s five-foot putt and then a wobbling one-footer from Ali disappeared down the hole made it seem like the contest would never end. But it had to happen, of course, and it did on the second. They had mirrored their tee shots and almost replicated each other’s approaches. Ali took his eight-footer first and as he’d done most day, and left it just short. Shamim broke the spell, dropping it in calmly before beaming at his captivated fraternity.

DGC will have to divide loyalties once again, however. The distance between Shamim and the title answers to the name of Arjun Singh. His birdie-battle with Singapore’s Lam Chih Bing ended on the 17th.

Ali had found trouble on the first itself as he found the trees, took a penlaty drop and two-putted for bogey as Shamim took the lead. Ali birdied the fifth to square it.

Shamim was making perfect approaches, though, and the three-footer he left himself on the sixth gave him the lead again. He doubled that on the next, till a slight carelessness with the putt on the 8th and a slip with the tee-shot on the tenth squared it back.