Sunday, Aug 17, 2003
Sunday, Aug 17, 2003 |
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Golf
By Our Special Correspondent
The day's star however was Karnataka Golf Association's caddie S. Madaiah who with a command performance vaulted into a tied second spot with Vijay Kumar. Madaiah shot an impressive three under 69 for the day. Feroz, whose last title success was in Dhaka in November 2001, was determined not to blow his chances on the final round. Since Dhaka, Feroz had been in a similar situation often and had after doing all the good work on the first three days, made a hash of the final round. This time however, the Air Sahara-sponsored professional kept his cool. A series of pars till the seventh hole saw Feroz keeping his rivals firmly at bay. Vijay had by then dropped two more shots and Mukesh's expected late charge had failed to materialise. Feroz despite a three putt on the fifth had saved par and his first blemish came on the eighth where he dropped a stroke. He quickly recovered with a birdie on the ninth. The back nine was a shaky one for Feroz. Bogeys on the 10th, 17th and 18th which included a couple of three putts saw him lose considerable ground. The best hole for Feroz was the 13th where he missed an eagle by a narrow margin but his rivals were worse off than he was. Vijay Kumar, his nearest rival, had four bogeys in his card and only two birdies which kept him from closing in on Feroz. Vijay on the 18th hole was aware that Madaiah had shot three under for the day and that he (Vijay) needed to make a birdie putt on the final hole to keep the second spot. Putting downhill, Vijay failed by inches to sink the putt and had to share the runner-up spot with Madaiah. In a fine gesture, Vijay warmly shook Madaiah's hand after the 18th hole to congratulate the Bangalore caddie. Madaiah's joy at the second place finish knew no bounds. His best finish in any tournament since he started playing on the pro circuit came after a fairly long time. Madaiah had showed his mettle earlier on the Hero Honda tour with a hole-in-one but despite some good performances had failed to make a lasting impression. Here with a card studded with five birdies which had a 30 foot putt on the sixth and a difficult 10 foot putt on the 13th Madaiah stroked himself into a possible second position. His card had two bogeys, on the third where he landed behind the trees and had to chip out from a bad position and again on the 12th. Madaiah then had to wait for the leader group to finish and keenly watched the action on the 18th when Feroz and Vijay landed there. Vijay's narrow miss ensured that Madaiah shared the substantial second place prize money. The amateurs' tournament was decided on the third round itself. Vignesh despite a horrendous card of 13 over took the amateurs' title. The results: 1. Feroz Ali (70, 74, 69, 74) 287; 2. Vijay Kumar (73, 72, 72, 74) and S. Madaiah (73, 73, 76, 69) 291 each; 4. Pappan (72, 79, 69, 73) 293; Uttam Singh Mundy (81, 71, 72, 72) and Amritinder Singh (69, 80, 75, 72) 296 each. Amateurs: Vignesh Ranga Rao (75, 77, 72, 85) 309; 2. R. Gopinath (78, 82, 87, 83) 330.
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