MUMBAI, January 22: Fifth-seed Feroz Ali crashed out of the Crompton Greaves All-India Matchplay Golf Championship being played at the par-70 Bombay Presidency Golf Club Course. In the second round today, Delhi's unseeded Jumman, nicknamed "Tiger", took a 3-0 lead by the 17th to bring about the biggest upset of the tournament so far.Mhow's Mukesh Kumar, who lifted the BPGC Open for the second consecutive year, went down to Chandigarh's Amritinder Singh in the tie-break on the 19th hole.
Jumman had lost to Feroz in their previous meeting in a matchplay event in Calcutta two years ago. "I was looking forward to today's clash. It was by best chance to avenge that loss," said Jumman.
It was a fine comeback by an unfancied Jumman after his better known opponent had taken a three-hole lead after the front nine. Feroz looked in tremendous form with birdies on the first, fourth, seventh and eighth. He, however, conceded some of that advantage by dropping shots on the 11th, 14th, 15th and 17th. Jumman on the
other hand, played an error-free round today. He won the 10th (with a birdie), 11th (par), 12th (birdie) and 14th (par) to go one-up on Feroz. On the par-four 15th, Jumman fired a birdie while Feroz dropped a shot. They halved the 16th. But on the par-3 220-yard 17th, the favourite dropped a shot while Jumman parred the hole to go three-up and book a berth for the third round.
In another upset, a charged-up Amritinder Singh came back strongly on his return trip after Mukesh had taken a two-hole lead half-way through. He levelled Mukesh on the 18th with a birdie to take the match into the tie-breaker.
On the last shot of the par-five 483-yard 19th, Mukesh was in a better position with a 10-feet downhill putt. But he missed the shot for a birdie while Amritinder managed to drain the ball into the hole with an eight-feet uphill put for birdie.
Delhi's Vivek Bhandari survived a scare from Vishal Singh when the latter stretched the third-seed into the tie-breaker. Vishal, of Jaipur, lost his one-up advantageon the last hole when he found chipped from one bunker to another.
On the 19th, Vishal wilted under pressure. He teed-off into the rough and could not find the fairway with his second shot either. Off the third the ball landed on the edge of the green. Bhandari too had a bad tee-off shot landing on the rough. But he did not let the pressure take its toll. Two shots later, he needed an easy four-feet putt for a birdie. Vishal was unlucky when he failed to hit a birdie with his last putt, missing the hole by inches.
Kanpur's Shiv Prakash, seeded ninth, scraped a win in the tie-breaker over Mumbai's Prakash Kubde. In the longest match of the day, Mumbai's Manohar Dighe and Calcutta's Rejwan Ali settled their argument on the 22nd hole of the 18-hole event. Rejwan had almost edged out Dighe after going to the last hole one-up. But Dighe fired a birdie on the 18th to take the match into sudden death.
They halved the next three holes. On the 22nd , Dighe almost threw himself out of the competition with a bad
second shot on the rough. But he played his next two shots precisely for a birdie and win the match.
RESULTS
(seedings in prefix)
Second round: 1-Gaurav Ghei (Del) bt Vijay Kumar Yadav (Kan) 6/5, 16-Rafiq Ali (Del) bt SK Patal (Cal) 7/5, 8-Basad Ali (Del) bt Prem (Del) 2/1, 9-Shiv Prakash (Kan) bt Prakash Kubde (Mum) 19th hole, 4- Ali Sher (Del) bt Rajeev Mohota (Cal) 4/3, Indrajit Bhalotia bt Amit Chopra 2/1, Jumman bt 5-Feroz Ali 3/1, Ajay Gupta bt Monish Bindra 3/1, 2-Vijay Kumar bt Sanjay Kumar 6/5, 15-Uttam singh Mundy bt Ganesh Madchal 9/7, 7-Arjun Singh bt Amandeep Johl 6/4, Akbar Ali bt Devendra Patel 2/1, 3-Vivek Bhandari bt Vishal Singh 19th hole, 14-Mohd Maqbool bt Chinni Ali 4/3, Amritinder Singh bt 6-Mukesh Kumar 19th hole, Manohar Dighe bt Rejwan Ali 21st hole.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
