Noida: Viraj Madappa riding on a cushion of 12 shots overnight had only himself to beat as he registered a huge 18-shot victory in the IGU Uttar Pradesh Juniors, an event on the IGU Junior National Tour which culminated at the Noida Golf Club here on Friday. The Kolkata lad shot a final round of 4-over 75 to finish the tournament at 3-over 287.
Coming at a distant second was Feroz Singh Garewal at 305 with Ritwik Jain and Raghubir Choudhary sharing the third spot at 308. Tanvir Kahlon and Pukhraj Singh Gill were tied for the fifth place at 309 while Karandeep Kochhar and Jairaj Singh Sandhu were tied for the seventh place at 311.
Tanvir Kahlon emerged as the winner in Category B with a four-day total of 309 beating karandeep Kochhar by two shots. Arjun Puri and kartik Sharma were tied for the third place at 319 while Kartik Digvijay Singh was fifth at 322. Udayajit Bhalotia and Hassan Rahman finished sixth and seventh respectively.
With the fight for the title almost over at the end of the third round, the fight was on for minor placings. However, young Viraj after an initial hiccup where he began the day with a bogey on the par-5 first, he lost one more stroke on the par-4 sixth to take the turn at 2-over. A birdie start on the back nine was followed by consecutive bogeys on the 11th and 12th before a birdie on the 14th. Two more bogeys on the 15th and the finishing hole did not matter much as by that time he had widened the gap.
“I am happy to win the title and that too by a huge margin. It is always good to begin the season with a victory,” said Viraj. “I was not in any kind of pressure and that helped a bit,” he added. “I look forward to make it a hattrick in this Northern swing of events,” said the champion.
Top scores after 72 holes:
Category A & B
287 Viraj Madappa (A) (73, 66, 73, 75); 305 Feroz Singh Garewal (A) (74, 71, 81, 79); 308 Ritwik Jain (A) (80, 75, 75, 78), Raghubir Choudhary (A) 75, 80, 75, 78); 309 Tanvir Kahlon (B) (79, 74, 75, 81), Pukhraj Singh Gill (A) (75, 77, 76, 81); 311 Karandeep Kochhar (B) (81, 75, 77, 78), Jairaj Singh Sandhu (A) (72, 77, 80, 82); 312 Prakhar Asawa (A) (72, 83, 75, 82); 313 Tutul Ali (A) (78, 78, 80, 77), Varun Parikh (80, 77, 78, 78); 314 Anant Singh Ahlawat (A) (81, 78, 76, 79)
Category B
309 Tanvir Kahlon (79, 74, 75, 81); 311 Karandeep Kochhar (81, 75, 77, 78); 319 Arjun Puri (83, 77, 78, 81), Kartik Sharma (77, 84, 76, 82); 322 Kartik Digvijay Singh (77, 83, 82, 80); 324 Udayjit Bhalotia (77, 78, 84, 85); 325 Hassan Rahman (79, 78, 83, 85); 326 Jaiveer Singh (79, 79, 86, 82); 328 Karan Pratap Singh (84, 84, 78, 82), Pratheek Nagaprasad (80, 80, 85, 83), Saptak Talwar (83, 83, 77, 85), Arjun Prasad (80, 81, 81, 86)
