MUMBAI, January 25: Calcutta's Indrajit Bhalotia won the 22-lakh Crompton Greaves All-India Matchplay at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club course, here today. In the final he beat Amritinder Singh of Chandigarh 4/3.Going by the trend displayed during the tournament, it was not surprising that Bhalotia upstaged the higher ranked Amritinder. It was a brilliant effort by the 25-year-old Bhalotia who trailed Amritinder for most part of the match.
Amritinder had shown good temperament right through the tournament. The 36-hole final saw Amritinder fire a birdie on the very first hole to take the lead. On the second, Bhalotia dropped a shot to go two-down. But he birdied the next to bring down the margin to one again. Amritinder then held onto his lead for most part of the first session (18 holes) except on the 13th and 14th when Bhalotia was one-up.
The second session however witnessed a U-turn in the duo's fortunes. From the fourth hole (22nd), Amritinder ran into rough weather. He erred on numerous occasionswith his drive which till then had been perfect.
Bhalotia parred the fourth as Amritinder bogied after finding the bunker on his second shot.
On the fifth, Bhalotia reached a couple of feet from the pin on the second. He putted a three-footer for a birdie to go one-up. Amritinder failed to convert an eight feet putt for a bogey.
From there onwards it was Bhalotia all the way as Amritinder fell apart. On the seventh Bhalotia was lucky when the ball returned to the fairway after hitting a tree. He landed on the greens with his second and two putted it for a par. After a good tee-shot Amritinder misjudged his second which landed to the right of the greens. He however duffed that ball to find the bunker and then chip and putted it for a bogey. This saw Bhalotia go two-up.
Amritinder missed a putt for a par on the 9th after they had halved the eighth. Bhalotia two-putted after landing some 10 feet from the pin to par the 443 yard and go three-up.
On the 10th Bhalotia went over the greens with the
tee-shot. He however could not par with a chip and putt and lost the hole to Amritinder who managed to par.
But Bhalotia was back to three-up when he managed to par the par-four 11th after going over the greens on his second. Amritinder landed on the green with a bad chip on the third which rolled a good 10-feet over the pin and lost the hole after failing to par.
Amritinder won the 12th but lost the 13th after dropping a shot. Bhalotia went three-up on the 15th after he halved the 14th. Amritinder pulled to the right of the fairway on the 15th and went over the greens with his second. He, however, misjudged a chip which rolled over the pin. He failed to putt the hole for a par. Bhalotia landed to the left of the green with his second. And a chip and putt later it was jubiliation time for the young man from Calcutta, taking an assailable four-up lead.
"I feel very satisfied after winning the tournament, especially after such a long time," said Bhalotia after winning what is one of the four Professional
Golfers Association of India (PGAI) majors.
The victory saw him get richer by Rs 5,00,000, the highest winners cheque to be awarded in an Indian event. Apart from the prize money Bhalotia was also given a blue jacket, a la Augusta Masters. Runner-up Amritinder Singh had to be content with Rs 2.5 lakhs.
In the fight for the third position, second seed Vijay Kumar (Lucknow) got the better of ninth seed Shiv Prakash by four holes with two to go. Vijay was awarded Rs 1.5 lakh with Shiv taking home Rs 90,000.
RESULTS
Final: Indrajit Bhalotia (Cal) bt Amritinder Singh (Chd) 4/3. Third place play-off: 2-Vijay Kumar (Luc) bt 9-Shiv Prakash (Kan) 4/2.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
