Ahmedabad: Manu Gandas (36-34-68-70) of Gurugram coasted to a comfortable three-shot win at the Glade One Masters 2022 as he totaled eight-under 208 following his two-under 70 in the final round at the Glade One Golf Resort & Club on Friday.
Chandigarh’s Harendra Gupta (36-37-73-65) finished runner-up at a total of five-under 211 after setting a new course record of seven-under 65 in round four of the Rs. 40 lakh event. Harendra improved upon Aalaap I L’s previous course record of 67 set during round three on Thursday.
The first two rounds of the second tournament of the 2022 TATA Steel PGTI season comprised nine holes each. The third and fourth rounds comprised 18 holes each. The tournament was played over a total of 54 holes. The par for the course in the third and fourth rounds was 72.
Manu, the overnight leader by two shots, came up with four birdies featuring three long conversions on the front-nine to open up a mammoth seven-shot lead over the chasing pack. Gandas, the runner-up at last year’s inaugural edition, sank a birdie on the opening hole followed by three consecutive birdies from the seventh to the ninth. He landed his approach from 110 yards to within a couple of feet of the flag on the ninth.
The 25-year-old Manu, who didn’t look at the leaderboard through the day, made bogey-birdie on the 10th and 11th before making pars all the way till the 17th. On the 18th, he found the water to drop a double-bogey.
Manu, who bagged his second career title, collected the winning cheque worth Rs.6,46,600 which moved him up from sixth to first place in the PGTI Order of Merit.
Gandas said, “It was a combination of carrying forward the confidence from last season when I won my first event and good memories of this course from last year when I finished runner-up.
“The solid front-nine set me up well for the second half of the round. Importantly, I made birdies on the two crucial holes, the first and ninth, which really lifted my spirits and helped me play freely thereafter.
“There were some nerves today but that was not due to the leaderboard pressure as I didn’t look at the scores even once. Hopefully, this win has set the tone for me for the rest of the season.”
Harendra Gupta, lying tied 16th and eight off the lead after round three, was off to a brilliant start as he drained four bridies over the first 11 holes. Gupta then dropped a bogey on the 13th before signing off in style with birdies on the last four holes.
Karan Pratap Singh of Faridabad claimed third place at four-under 212 while Mysuru’s Yashas Chandra secured fourth position at three-under 213.
Among the Gujarat-based golfers, Varun Parikh finished tied 23rd at five-over 221 while Anshul Patel ended tied 38th at 10-over 226.
