The Hindu : Sport / Golf : Rahman is champion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 06, 2005

Sport

Sport - Golf

Rahman is champion

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 5. Bangaldesh champion Mohammed Siddikur Rahman beat Amarbir Singh Lehal three and two to win the Eveready 104th all-India amateur golf championship at the Delhi Golf Club course here on Saturday.

In an anti-climactic end after Lehal kept coming back through the course of the 36-hole final, the Chandigarh youngster `surrendered' on the 34th (16th hole) after he went into the bushes a second time. By then he was two down and was almost out of the race with Rahman sitting in the middle of the fairway.

This was the completion of a hat-trick of titles for Rahman, since he had taken the Nepal amateur crown and his own country's amateur title earlier this season. It was also sweet revenge for the Bangladesh player since Lehal had beaten him in the second round of the 2002 edition in Bangalore.

Lehal had gone on to make the final then before losing to Manav Das. "I am delighted at winning this title which has come to me after a week of hard work. The level of competition at the all-India has been very high and it's a good feeling to have come up trumps from among such established players," said Rahman.

"It's disappointing to have reached this stage and not get my hands on the trophy but all credit goes to Rahman who never really let me get into the lead," said Lehal.

Errors aplenty

On a day when both players looked to be a little too tense and made errors aplenty, Lehal was three down at the end of the first 18 holes but clawed himself back in the second-half. By the time the players finished the half-way stage of the second round of 18, he was just a hole down. On the

27th (ninth hole), Lehal won, after being on the rough to the left. He produced a great chip from there to win the hole with a par.

Lehal won again on the 10th with a par to be all-square, but dropped back by two holes, losing the 11th by messing up a six-foot putt and going into the bunker on the short 12th. Both were over the green on the 13th, but Rahman pulled off a superb putt from the rough. The pressure was on Lehal now and he also came up with a good putt, something that had deserted him through the course of the day.

Fortunes swung tantalisingly on the 14th where Rahman landed his tee shot into the fairway bunker and then blasted out into the woods to the right. Lehal, in the meantime, found the right-side bunker in his approach to the green. He came out nicely and took the hole in regulation while Rahman bogeyed after a penalty drop from the bushes.

The best part of Rahman's play came on the 33rd (15th hole). He sank a 25-foot uphill putt to win the hole and Lehal must have known then and there that it was hopeless to try to come back. Two down, the Chandigarh man did the worst that anyone in the sparse gallery could have imagined. He drove into the woods on the 16th.

The championship was the finale to the Royal Challenge Indian Golf Tour for the 2004-2005 season.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport