Senior IPS Mann gets lucky to win the match play in CNEB All India

Chandigarh, January 19, 2012:  The 58-year-old IPS Mann gets lucky at his home course to win the match from an Englishman Curtis Griffiths who was 1/3^rd of his age on the day one of CNEB All India Amateur Championship, match play at Chandigarh Golf Club, here. 

Mann, who recently won the bronze medal in the Asia Pacific senior’s team championship in Malaysia, missed birdies on 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 16^th and a couple of par putts but the game became interesting when Griffiths’s ball got stuck in the tree on 16^th and Mann was 2-up after making up and down. Griffiths, 18, then chipped out to win the 17^th and Mann became 1-up with one hole to play and remained one up to win after both of them halved the 18^th.  It was not an impressive day for both the English players as Jack Colegate also been beaten by Bangalore’s Trishul Chinappa who was 2 & 1. 

The leader of day two of stroke play event Raghav Bhandari won the match from Delhi’s Arshad Ali in a sudden death play-off after making a birdie on the 19^th. It was a melodramatic game for both the players as Bhandari was five-down after the front nine but started firing some good shots to win the 10^th, 11^th, 12^th, 13^th to remain 1-down. Bhandari lost the 14^th to go 2-down and after halving 15^th, he won 16^th and 17^th and both of them were all squared after halving the 18^th. There was two more sudden-death play off won by Kolkata’s S. K. Pappu from Mohd Dulal Hossain and Bangladeshi Nijita Bandara from Kapurthala’s Ashbeer Singh Saini.

Delhi’s Shubhankar Sharma, who also plays on the junior circuit, beat experienced Udayan Mane 3 & 2 after playing very tricky shots from the very first hole. Sharma’s second shot on the first hole went into the right fence from where he hit the 8-iron to play a safe bogey while Mane also bogeyed to halve the hole. Sharma won the 2^nd after making par and 3^rd after making a double bogey to go 2-up but remained 1-up after Mane birdied the 4^th to win the hole. Mane won the 5^th as well and both became all squared. Both of them halved the 6^th while Sharma chipped in for a birdie on 7^th to go 1-up. After halving 8^th, 9^th and 10^th, Sharma won the 11^th, 13^th, 14^th to go 4-up while Mane won the 15^th and after the game ended on 16^th when both of them halved the hole. Other two players of Sharma’s age group Honey Baisoya (3 &1) and Sayed Saquib Ahmed (4 & 3) who is also the No. 1 Indian Junior won the matches from Chandigarh’s Sandeep Singh Sandhu and Kolkata’s Raja Sardar respectively.  

Bangladeshi Mohd Nazim showed some good golf as he beat Sri Lankan N. Thangaraja by 2 & 1. The No. 1 amateur of his country, Nazim was 3-down after loosing 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd but became one-down after halving 4^th and winning 5^th  and 6^th. Both of them equaled after the 8^th and then Nazim started coming in form when he won 9^th, 10^th to go 2-up. It has a great see saw throughout the round as both of them halved the 11^th they were all squared until the 13^th but Nazim became one-up after winning the 14^th   to go 1-up. Nazim, then won the 17^th after making par for 2 & 1 while Thangaraja bogeyed to loose.

The No. 1 amateur of the country, S. Chikkarangappa beat Delhi’s Siddharth Semwal 5&3 who has been giving a strong challenge from the beginning. Chikka won the 2^nd, 6^th, 8^th, 9^th, 13^th, 14^th and 15^th while lost only 5^th and 11^th. Other players who qualified for the pre-quarter finals were Local H. S. Kang (3 & 1) after beating his colleague Aman Guran. Angad Cheema beat Col. S. K. Lakra for 5 &3. Bangalore’s Khalin Joshi repeated his performance of the second day of Goodricke East India Amateur Golf Championship when he beat Jasjeet Singh again on the 18^th hole to remain 1-up for the day. Jamshedpur’s Karan Taunk won by 2 & 1 from Man Simran Singh. Another local Simranjeet Singh beat Bangalore’s R. Marimuthu  for 5 & 4 while Delhi’s Gagan Verma was 1-up for the day after beating Captain Varun Parmar.

“It was a great match. I hit the ball good. I started 3 up after 3 and held the lead till 9. I then won the 10^th and 12^th to go 5-up. Jack made a couple of good birdies thereafter to hang in there till the 17^th   where it ended with me winning 2up with one to go,”said, Trishul Chinappa who finished fifth in Sothern India Amateur Championship at KGA this season. 

Grifiths and Colegate who packed their bags in the first round itself mentioned, “We are pretty happy with all the arrangements PAR sports leisure adventure management (SLAM G) has made especially the stay at the five-star and pick and drop facility. We hope to come back to India to perform better next time.” 

Mr. Fauja Singh, 100-year-old marathon runner who came to give blessings to the players today, said, “I am pretty happy to see the young players, officials and the referees working so hard to keep the game of golf alive in Chandigarh. It’s my suggestion to all the players to stay away from psychotropic drugs to stay fit like me even at my age. It’s also nice to see companies like SLAM G taking the amateur game to the next level.”

Press Release