Pune: Phillaur lad Pukhraj Singh Gill upset favourite Manu Gandas while carding the best round of the day which was a level par card of 71 under testing conditions to win the IGU Western India Junior Golf championship which culminated at the Poona Club Golf Course here on Saturday. Pukhraj finally finished with a tournament total of 7-over 291 to take the honours in the top Category (A&B).
Feroz Singh Garewal ended up a creditable second, two shots behind the winner while Manu, leading by three shots overnight, finished third with a total of 294. Tapendra Ghai was fourth at 295. Arjun Puri, despite playing in Category B ended up fifth overall with a total of 300 which also fetched him the title in his category. He was a 10-shot winner over Karandeep Kocchar and Bhav Sharma who shared the second spot at 310. Karthik Sharma ended up fourth at 316 whole Arjun Prasad completed the top five at 319.
Manu lost advantage early in the day when he lost three shots in the first two holes while Pukhraj parred the first three holes to be on par with Manu. A bogey on the par-3 fourth by Pukhraj against a birdie by Manu, gave a one-shot advantage to the latter. However, two bogeys on the fifth and ninth with a birdie in between on the seventh Manu was back to square with Pukhraj playing an attacking game and emerging successful as he made birdies on the seventh and ninth to take the turn at level par.
On the back nine, Manu almost repeated his front nine as he made a double on the 10th while making a bogey on the 12th. The 17-year-old Pukhraj then took charge as he parred his way but for a mistake on the 15th where he lost a shot but made it up on the finishing hole making a birdie.
“I am thrilled with the victory and it will be a special one for me,” said Pukhraj after his victory. “I had just planned to play to par and convert a birdie here and there. I think Manu had a bad start but could have recovered. I was not thinking about him but I was more concerned about making pars,” said Pukhraj.
Top scores after 72 holes
Category A & B
291 Pukhraj Singh Gill (71, 74, 75, 71); 293 Feroz Singh Garewal (75, 69, 76, 73); 294 Manu Gandas (71, 70, 76, 77); 295 Tapendra Ghai (73, 74, 74, 74); 300 Arjun Puri (Cat B) (69, 76, 77, 78); 307 Rohan Dhole Patil (72, 78, 81, 76); 309 Piyush Sangwan (78, 77, 80, 74), Tutul Ali (83, 79, 70, 77); 310 Varun Parikh (76, 82, 79, 73), Karandeep Kochhar (Cat B) (81, 79, 77, 73), Bhav Sharma (78, 76, 77, 79)
Category B
300 Arjun Puri (69, 76, 77, 78); 310 Karandeep Kochhar (81, 79, 77, 73), Bhav Sharma (78, 76, 77, 79); 316 Kartik Sharma (76, 71, 79, 90); 319 Arjun Prasad (81, 84, 77, 77); 324 Saarthak Chhibber (82, 82, 78, 82); 325 Shreyas Chandra (78, 85, 79, 83); 327 Kartik Digvijay Singh (88, 77, 80, 82); 329 Adilbir Singh (91, 76, 81, 81); 333 Tanay Srivastav (86, 82, 86, 79), Digraj Singh Gill (91, 80, 82, 80)