Mumbai, February 22, 2014: Navratna Ahmedabad once
again underlined their golfing supremacy by claiming top honours in the Rs 1.2
crore prize-money 3rd Louis Philippe Cup, 2014 Golf Championships.
The Ahmedabad team sidelined strong contenders Puravankara
Bangalore by a 2-1 margin in the strokeplay final played at the par-70 Bombay
Presidency Golf Club, Chembur, Mumbai on Saturday.
The Navratna team had earlier triumphed, when they defeated
the same opponents, Bangalore ,
3-0 on their home turf in the first edition.
Navratna owe much of their success to their Sri Lankan pro
Mithun Perera who sunk a crucial birdie on the par-5 18th hole to finish with a
card of 2-under-68 and score over M. Dharma, who made some costly mistakes
including a triple bogey on the par-4 9th hole. However, Dharma still managed
to complete the round with a score of 1-under-69 to lose the tie narrowly.
Perera completed a hat-trick of titles in three weeks having won the Eagleburg
Open in Bangalore and Standard Chartered Open in
Colombo .
Earlier, Navratna captain Vikrant Chopra lost the opening
singles to Anirban Lahiri , India Bangalore
professional made 5 birdies and an equal number of bogeys for a par score of 70
while Chopra had just 2 birdies and 3 bogeys to finish at 71.
The second singles was also a close contest with Ahmedabad’s
Vinod Kumar putting a great performance of the back nine, hitting four birdies
for a score of 2-under-68, while his rival Chikkarangappa also enjoyed a good
outing by firing 3 birdies and dropping 2 shots for a card of 1-under-69.
Chopra later mentioned that it was a combined team effort
which helped them win. “I am content that we won. It was a collective team
effort and that is what we wanted. The draw also went in our favour as I looked
forward to play against Lahiri. We had also pinned hopes on Mithun since he is
high on confidence and has helped the team by giving us some good advice,” said
Chopra.
Mithun was all praise for his teammates. “Vikrant and Vinod
played good golf. We rallied well as a team and supported each other and were
confident that we could do it,” stated Mithun, who has not lost any event in
the last three weeks.
Himmat Rai came up with a superb late charge to help Krrish
Colombo turn the tables on AVT Kolkata in the third place match. Trailing by
three shots against Shankar Das and with just three holes remaining, Himmat
stamped his class with two successive birdies before signing off with a neat
eagle to clinch the match in his favour. The 26-year-old Rai with a score of 71
defeated Das (72). K Prabagaran (71) lost to Rahil Gangjee (67) before N Thangaraja (70) overcame Chiragh Kumar (71) in the
third singles match.
The Ahmedabad team received the winners cheque of Rs 36
lakh, while the second best team Bangalore
pocketed Rs 24 lakhs and Krrish Colombo went home richer by Rs 18 lakhs.
Louis Philippe Cup 2014 – (Finals): Navratna Ahmedabad beat
Puravankara Bangalore 2-1 -- Vikrant Chopra (71) lost to Anirban Lahiri (70);
Vinod Kumar (68) beat S. Chikkarangappa (69); Mithun Perera (68) beat M. Dharma
(69).
3-4th place: Krrish Colombo beat AVT Kolkata 2-1 -- Himmat
Rai (71) beat Shankar Das (72), Prabhagaran (71) lost to Rahil Gangjee (67), N Thangaraja (70) beat Chiragh Kumar (71).
5-6th place: DLF Gurgaon beat TAKE Chennai 3-0; 7-8th place:
Shubhkamna Delhi 2-1.
Photo caption: Navratna Ahmedabad team, Winner of the 3rd Louis
Philippe Golf 2014 (L to R), Sri Lankan Mithun Perera, team owner Devang Shah,
M Dharma, Vikrant Chopra and team owner Pranav Shah.
No comments:
Post a Comment