Arjun Singh is Indian PGA champion

By Our Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI, NOV. 4. Cool and calculative Arjun Singh chalked out the biggest win of his career and installed himself as the `PGA Champion of India' at the Delhi Golf Club course here on Sunday.

The Delhi pro was five strokes better than Uttam Singh Mundy, at 17-under 271, which was enough for him to inscribe his name on the Honda-Siel PGA championship's Rs. 4.86-lakh winners' cheque. On doing that, Arjun also equalled the four-day course record at the DGC, made by Shiv Prakash at the 1998 SRF Open.

It was a typical win for the Asian PGA Tour regular Arjun Singh as he dominated the field on all the four days. Arjun's win was similar to the way Jyoti Randhawa had dominated during some of his memorable wins, including the Hero Honda Masters, on the same course.

The Order of Merit leader on the Indian PGA Tour, Mukesh Kumar, drifted out of contention as he made errors on his tee shots. He seemed to be in a mood of romancing in the jungle as he wandered into the DGC forest four times on Sunday. Mukesh managed a card of 71 to be 10-under 278, and in sole possession of the third place. Mundy settled for the runner-up cheque for Rs. 3.36 lakhs, while Mukesh got Rs. 1.89 lakhs.

After three rounds of mellowed-down performance, defending champion Jyoti Randhawa fired the best card of the day, five- under 67. Opening with a perfect birdie-birdie start, Randhawa made two straight bogeys on the outward stretch. But, his resolve to be among the top finishers, did not let him down. He birdied two more holes before the turn, and on the home stretch there were three more to help his cause.

Randhawa, who heads for the U.S. to participate in the second stage of the US PGA Qualifying School, sneaked into fourth position ahead of Sweden's Daniel Chopra (281) and Harmeet Kahlon (283). Gaurav Ghei was tied seventh with Shiv Prakash and Rohtas Singh, all at three-under 285.

``It was wire-to-wire competition, though at the end it became little easier,'' said Arjun Singh. ``I kept telling myself just be patient as it is easy to drop shots at this course, and anyone can catch up,'' Arjun said of Mundy's early charge.

But for a bogey on the par-5 18th, Arjun had the new course record on his card. At 18-under after 17 holes, Arjun was disturbed by the sudden ringing of a mobile phone just when he was to take the tee shot on the 18th. ``I got disturbed on my tee shot and for the first time in four days went into the bushes,'' he said.

Arjun, who is 22nd on the Davidoff Asian PGA Tour Order of Merit, now heads for Chinese-Taipei for the BMW International golf tournament. ``I'll take a week off before joining the Asian Tour.'' And, buoyed by the win, the Delhi golfer said he would now like to give it a try at the US PGA Tour Q-School in 2002.

Earlier, the contest hotted up when both Mundy and Mukesh birdied, while Arjun kept on with his par play. Mukesh birdied the second to reduce the gap further, but his erratic play eventually left him out of contention. To follow up Saturday's triple bogey on the par-4 10th, Mukesh again misfired his tee shot and finally ended up with a double bogey.

Mundy was much more balanced. But as the day wore on, in his urgency to catch up with Arjun Singh, Mundy ended up with three bogeys.

Arjun Singh, meanwhile, never let himself get agitated even as he missed several easy birdies. Birdies, in fact, deserted Arjun on the front nine except on the par-3 `lucky seventh'. It was the kind of performance very few might have managed - to birdie a particular par-3 hole on all four days.

``Today I think I'll just go and catch up with my sleep,'' said Arjun Singh, when asked how he would like to celebrate his win.

Among the amateurs, the current India number three Ashok Kumar showed great temperament to win the event, with an aggregate score of two-under 286. Having struggled on the first day with 76, Ashok made steady progress carding 68, 69 and 73 to leave the rest of the field way behind. Simarjeet Singh took the runner-up position with two-over 290.

lThe scores: Arjun Singh (64, 69, 67, 71) 271; Uttam Singh Mundy (68, 70, 68, 69) 275; Mukesh Kumar (66, 70, 71, 71) 278; Jyoti Randhawa (71, 71, 70, 67) 279; Daniel Chopra (Swe) (70, 69, 70, 72) 281; Harmeet Kahlon (69, 71, 69, 74) 283; Gaurav Ghei (69, 74, 71, 71), Shiv Prakash (68, 71, 73, 73) and Rohtas Singh (69, 70, 72, 74) 285; A.J. Coetsee (RSA) (73, 73, 68, 72) and Ashok Kumar (A) (76, 68, 69, 73) 286; Mohd. Islam (74, 72, 68, 73) 287; Sanjay Kumar (74, 71, 73, 70) and Vijay Kumar (72, 71, 70, 75) 288; Amritinder Singh (70, 69, 75, 75) 289; Dinesh Kumar (72, 73, 73, 72), Vivek Bhandari (74, 71, 71, 74), Simarjeet Singh (A) (68, 72, 76, 74), Rafiq Ali (72, 68, 75, 75) and Digvijay Singh (70, 69, 74, 77) 290.

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