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Mukesh claims top honours

CHENNAI SEPT .7. It is an irony of sport that quite often streaks of excellence kill one of its essential crowd-pleasing ingredients - seat edge climactic drama. But that is not reason enough to argue against excellence.

In the event, who can blame the slender Mhow pro Mukesh Kumar for turning out to be as good as he was over four rounds in winning the Rs. 7 lakh The Hindu Open golf tournament at the Cosmo-TNGF course on Saturday.

Those looking for last hole thrills were a touch disappointed as Mukesh, leading Firoz Ali by three strokes overnight, stretched it to six by the time he approached the 18th hole tee-box. From there, he could have played blind folded and still won.

In the end, Mukesh ended up winner by five strokes over Firoz Ali, whose last hole birdie, narrowed the gap by a stroke. Mukesh's four day aggregate of 18-under 270 is a course record and he took home Rs. 1,13,400.

Mukesh played a five-under 67 in the last round, a day's best he shared with Digvijay Singh, whose 67 saw him finish third with an aggregate of 278, behind Mukesh and Firoz Ali (275). ``I always enjoy playing in Chennai. I love it here and it is a great feeling that this is my first win of the season,'' said Mukesh Kumar. ``The course here is getting better and better and it is nice to play and win here.''

Superb iron play and confident putting featured Mukesh's last round. He shot six birdies and one bogey and the best of the birdies came on the fifth, a lovely putt from 10 feet. Firoz had four birdies and after bogeying the 17th, finished in style with a superb second shot and a birdie putt on the 18th.

The Colorplus champion Digvijay Singh had a wonderful bogey free round in which he fired five birdies. ``My second round 74 spoilt my chances. Otherwise I have played good golf here. But for the second round I could have given Mukesh a run for his money,'' said Digvijay.

Meanwhile, the wily veteran Basad Ali shot a hole-in-one on the fourth hole and won a Hero Honda Passion bike for the effort, which, he admitted, was a fluke. ``I did not aim for it. I was just lucky,'' said Ali, who used a nine-iron.

C.V. Yudvir edged B. Gurunath to win the amateur event. Both finished on 295 but the former won because he had a better score over the last 36 holes. Yudvir shot a round of 81 on Saturday while Gurunath had a card of 74.

Top 10 pro scores: 270- Mukesh Kumar (Mhow); 275- Firoz Ali (Kol); 278- Digvijay Singh (Meerut); 281- Ashok Kumar (Del); S.S.P.Chowrasia (Kol); 283- Rafiq Ali (Kol); 284- Indrajit Bhalotia (Kol); 285- Basad Ali (Kol); Gaurav Ghei (Del); Ali Sher (Del).

Amateurs: Winner: C.V. Yudvir (295, better last 36); Runner up: B. Gurunath (295). Third place: L. Selvadurai (ONGC), 297.

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