Chandigarh Open hat-trick for Amritinder

Chandigarh Open hat-trick for Amritinder
SHONA MANCO

CHANDIGARH, OCTOBER 7: Chandigarh's Amritinder Singh completed a tournament hat-trick on Saturday as he slotted his final putt on the 18th to win the Chandigarh Open for the third year running.

However, history repeated itself in more than one way, as the clash between Delhi's Gaurav Ghei and Amritinder continued from where they left off last year when Gaurav lost the title in a play-off.

Though Amritinder made the first birdie of the day, on the par four first, Ghei took over from there with an eagle on the second, a birdie on the difficult par four fourth. Ghei then hit a bad drive on the sixth which caused him to drop a shot, but made up for it with birdies on the seventh and eighth but dropped another on the ninth to be three under for the day.

Meanwhile, after his first hole birdie, Amritinder dropped shots on the second where he hit his drive into the right rough and made a double bogey on the par-five seventh after which he trailed Gaurav by two shots The third playing partner, Mukesh who seemed to be completely ignored by the gallery three putted the first, birdied the second, dropped a shot on the third and two on the fourth where he hit the water to take the turn at six-under, same as Amritinder.

The back nine, as it is correctly said, is where all the action took place. Gaurav continued slotting his putts like a machine, making birdie on the 10th. Then on the 11th, both Amritinder and Gaurav birdied, but also gave up the advantage immediately on the next where both hit bad drives to card bogey's. Gaurav then eagled the 13th to take a five shot advantage over Amritinder who missed birdie. His downfall started from the par-three 14th where he went for the pin, tucked away on the left, and hit it into the rough. After a duffed shot he made a chip and putt for a bogey. He then hit his drive on the 15th also into the rough, while Amritinder played safe and holed a 35 footer for birdie making up three shots in two holes.

After being denied a drop on the 16th, Amritinder hit the green where his playing companions waited due to the delay caused by the referee in getting there and holed another 30 footer for birdie, while a shaken Guarav missed taking the score to tie at seven under for the tournament.

It was almost over on the 17th, where Gaurav hit his drive into the trees, stayed inside with his second shot and chipped out to three-putt for a double while Amritinder made a safe par to take a one shot lead. A final par on the 18th sealed victory for Amritinder who will take home his third winner's cheque from this event.

Vijay Kuamr also made a charge on Saturday. He then went on to birdie the seventh and eighth to go to one-under-par for the day. He then birdied the 13th and 16th to also go to seven-under for the tournament, but a three putt on the 17th denied him a chance to tie the leaders. The amateur event was won by Jaideep Patwardhan who shot a four over 76 today, compared to his nearest rival, Girish Virk who shot an 82.

Scores: 281: Amritinder Singh (71, 69, 69, 72); 282: Vijay Kumar (69, 73, 70, 70); 283: Gaurav Ghei (69, 75, 68, 71), Mukesh Kumar (69, 69, 71, 74); 284: Uttam Singh Mundy (73, 70, 69, 72); 285: SSP Chowrasia (73, 68, 72, 72).