Bhubaneshwar: Overnight leader Raghu Bir Choudhary annexed his second successive title when he won the Bhubaneshwar Junior/Sub-junior, the fifth leg of the nine-legged Tata Steel IGU East Zone Junior Tour being played at the Bhubaneshwar Golf Club here on Thursday.
Raghu Bir added a 88 to his overnight 81 to finish with a two-round total of 169, ten shots clear of second placed Rohan Agarwal in the top category (Cat A & B).
Nishkarsh Sachdeva and Kunal Naidu were tied for the third spot while Yashwardhan Sarda was fifth. Bishwam Ghosh and Udayajit Bhalotia were tied for the sixth place. Rohan Agarwal captured the title in the ‘B’ Category with Nishkarsh Sachdeva and Kunal tied for the second place while Yashvardhan and Bishwan Ghosh ended up fourth and fifth respectively.
The Category ‘C’ honours were grabbed by Hashan Rahman with Devansh Chadha and Bibek Sardar finishing second and third respectively. Sandeep Yadav emerged victorious in Category ‘D’.
Raghu Bir who looked determined to put up a good show in the final round, began earnestly making a hat-trick of pars before losing a stroke each on the next couple of holes. However was in trouble once again on the par-4 eighth where he made a triple in successive rounds and ended his front nine with a double.
On the return journey, the Kolkata lad once again began in a similar fashion making three straight pars before making a triple on the 14th and bogeying the rest of the holes (double on 16th). However, Raghubir signed off with a par to emerge victorious.
“I am thrilled to win back to back titles,” said the 16-year-old. “I was very confident after my victory at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club and today too I played well on most of the holes. I committed some mistakes which could have been avoided but there wasn’t any pressure from my opposition and that helped a bit,” admitted Raghu Bir. “I am looking forward to winning more titles and top the IGU Order of Merit,” added the champion.
Top scores after 36 holes
Cat A & B
169 Raghu Bir Choudhary (CAT A) (81, 88); 179 Rohan Agarwal (CAT B) (90, 89); 185 Nishkarsh Sachdeva (CAT B) (94, 91); 185 Kunal Naidu (CAT B) (90,95); 188 Yashvardhan Sarda (CAT B) (89, 99); 189 Bishwam Ghosh (CAT B) (93, 96); 189 Udayjit Bhalotia (CAT B) (96, 93); 189 Jung Yunwoo (CAT A) (98, 91); 200 Abhisek Abhijeet (CAT A) (97, 103); 208 Tanishq Julka (CAT B) (116, 92), 212 Rajesh Bahera (CAT A) (112, 100); 218 Nihar Ranjan Mishra (CAT B) (110, 108); 255 Akshat Praneet (CAT B) (128, 127)
Cat B
179 Rohan Agarwal (90, 89); 185 Nishkarsh Sachdeva (94, 91); 185 Kunal Naidu (90, 95); 188 Yashvardhan Sarda (89, 99); 189 Bishwam Ghosh (93, 96); 189 Udayjit Bhalotia (96, 93); 208 Tanishq Julka (116, 92); 218 Nihar Ranjan Mishra (110, 108); 255, Akshat Praneet (128, 127)
Cat C
166 Hashan Rahman (82, 84); 177, Devansh Chadha (89, 88); 183, Bibek Sardar (94, 89); 197 Vir Singh Lamba (98, 99); 197 Manish Rajak (102, 95); 211 Raghav Kharb (110, 101); 217 Rohil Chokhany(108, 109)
CAT D
183 Sandeep Yadav (95, 88); 208 Rajib Ali (103, 105)
By Indian Sports News Network
