Kolkata: Sunit Chowrasia, armed with a solid overnight lead faltered just a bit but otherwise played some brilliant golf to win by a huge margin and annex the RCGC Juniors Cup, the seventh leg of the Tata Steel IGU East Zone Junior Tour which concluded at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club here on Thursday. The local lad added a 2-over par 74 in the second round to his overnight 70 to finish the tournament at level-par 144 for 36 holes to capture his second title of the season.

Raghu Bir Choudhary and Vishesh Khanna finished way behind the winner with a total of 162 after posting a consecutive 81 each to finish joint-second. Viraj Khanna was fourth at 164 while Gurkirat Singh was fifth, two shots behind. Upanshu Sekhar Ghose finished sixth while Md. Rohit ended up seventh.

Gurkirat Singh captured the title in Category B with a total of 166. Raj Ali emerged as the runner up with 171 while Udayajit Bhalotia and Yashwardhan Sarda shared the third place with an identical score of 172 while Rohan Agarwal was fifth. Hashan Rahman emerged victorious in Category C while Bibek Sardar finished second. Devansh Chadha and Manish Rajak shared the third place with Kshitij Sehgal finishing fifth.

Sandeep Yadav was a run-away victor in category D with Rajib Ali at a distant second. Divij Sehgal and Abhikanks Basu finished third and fourth respectively. In Category  E, played over 18 holes, overnight leader Kaushal Bagrodia clinched the honours with Pranshu Poddar finishing as the runner-up.

In a gala prize presentation, Sandipan Chakarabortty, MD, Tata Steel Processing & Distribution Limited gave away the prizes. “TATA Steel is very keen to grow the game from the grass root level and we think that the TATA Steel IGU East Zone junior Tour is a true challenge to unearth talent and help young players further their game. The response has been overwhelming and we are very keen to continue our support,” said Chakarabortty.

Meanwhile, Sunit had a shaky start while opening his account with a bogey on the par-4 first hole. However he recovered instantly by saving pars on the next two holes while making consecutive birdies on the par-5 fourth and par-4 fifth. The lean boy committed one more mistake on the seventh while saving pars on the rest before taking the turn at even par for the round.

On the back nine, a solid start consisting of a hattrick of pars sealed his victory. After a couple of consecutive bogeys on the 13th and 14th, Sunit parred his way home to emerge victorious with a comfortable margin of 18 shots.

“I am thrilled to win for the second time in the season,” said an elated Sunit. “I knew that I had a comfortable margin but I did not want to take any risk and hence played it safe. I thought of saving pars and I think I achieved it to a great extent,” said the champion. “It was great to win in front of my home crowd and I hope to top the IGU Order of Merit,” he added. 

Top scores (after 38 holes)
Category A & B
144 Sunit Chowrasia (CAT A) (70, 74)
162 Raghu Bir Choudhary (CAT A) (81, 81)
162 Vishesh Khanna (CAT A) (81, 81)
164 Viraj Khanna  (CAT A)  (84, 80)
166 Gurkirat Singh (CAT B) (86, 80)
168 Upanshu Sekhar Ghose (CAT A) (79, 89)
169 Md. Rohit (CAT A) (88, 81)
171 Raj Ali (CAT B) (84, 87)
172 Yashvardhan Sarda (CAT B) (85, 87)
172 Udayjit Bhalotia (CAT B) (86, 86)
173 Parwez Khan (CAT A) (86, 87)
178 Md Imitiaz (CAT A) (86, 92)
178 Rohan Agarwal (CAT B) (87, 91)

Category B
166 Gurkirat Singh (86, 80)
171 Raj Ali (84, 87)
172 Udayjit Bhalotia (86, 86)
172 Yashvardhan Sarda (85, 87)
178 Rohan Agarwal (87, 91)
180 Bishwam Ghosh (90, 90)
186 Zahed Khan (96, 90)
187 Amit Kumar Shaw (90, 97)
189 Nishkarsh Sachdeva (100, 89)
191 Akritdeep Sachdeva (90, 101)

Category C
165 Hashan Rahman (77, 88)
169 Bibek Sardar (86, 83)
172 Devansh Chadha (87, 85)
172 Manish Rajak (89, 83)
193 Kshitij Sehgal (97, 96)
203 Kartik Lohumi (102, 101)
205 Sreenjoy Majumdar (98, 107)
206 Rohil Chokhany (100, 106)
206 Vir Singh Lamba (102, 104)
207 Kushay Kejriwal (105, 102)

Category D
158 Sandeep Yadav (78, 80)
188 Rajib Ali (100, 88)
193 Divij Sehgal (92, 101)
203 Abhikanks Basu (102, 101)
210 Pratham Choudhary (104, 106)
220 Aroush Tagore (112, 108)
233 Manav Bansal (112, 121)

Category E (18 holes)
98 Kaushal Bagrodia (47, 51)
109 Pranshu Poddar (59, 50)
118 Arav Shanghavi (57, 61)
118 Rakshik Basu (61, 57)