Bengaluru: Udayan Mane eased to a comfortable three-stroke victory over Syed Saqib Ahmed after posting identical two-under par 70s in the final round of the Tata Steel Karnataka Amateur 2014 being played at the Par-72 Eagleton Golf Resort here on Friday. The winning gross score, posted by Mane was a twelve-under par 276 while Saqib finished at nine-under 279 followed by Jaibir Singh at three-under par 285.
Last week’s Southern India Amateur winner Samarth Dwivedi shot a one-over 73 for the day to occupy the fourth place at a gross of one-over 289. He was followed by the duo of Trishul Chinnappa and Gagan Verma who were tied for the fifth place a further stroke behind at two-over par 290. Young Viraj Madappa came in seventh at three-over par 291 while Delhi’s Yash Jindal was eighth by a stroke at four-over par 292.
Unlike yesterday, Mane was in control from the very beginning in what was a two-horse race with Saqib. He fired a birdie on the opening hole to stretch his lead to four strokes which grew to five strokes when Saqib dropped a stroke on the Par 4 4th hole. Mane would hit three more birdies on the 5th, 6th and 8th holes, which Saqib managed to match and take the turn five strokes adrift.
The back nine gave Saqib a faint hope of revival when he closed the gap to three strokes by the 12th by sinking a birdie on the 11th coupled with a bogey for Mane on the 12th hole. However, the leader stuck back with a birdie on the par 5 13th and followed it up with some solid golf to lead by four with one hole to play. Safe in the knowledge that he could make a triple bogey and still win, Mane finished off matters with a bogey to come in two-under for the day and win by three strokes.
Mane, who won his second event of the season following his victory at the Western India Amateur said, “It feels great to win again on the tour especially in front of my home crowd.” He further added, “All my focus is now on the Asian Games trials and to make the Indian squad which would be the proudest moment for me.”
Top Scores (Final):
276 Udayan Mane (69,68,69,70); 279 Syed Saqib Ahmed (74,66,69,70); 285 Jaibir Singh (71,72,72,70); 289 Samarth Dwivedi (72,70,74,73); 290 Trishul Chinnappa (71,74,73,72), Gagan Verma (74,70,74,72); 291 Viraj Madappa (72,78,67,74); 292 Yash Jindal (71,69,79,73); 293 Harimohan Singh (74,73,75,71), Pukhraj Singh Gill (76,71,74,72), Rohan Sharma (74,74,72,73), Yashas Chandra (73,71,75,74)