In his last two visits to the Madras Gymkhana Club annexe as part of Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) events, Mukesh Kumar had carded very good scores of 13-under (2008) and 21-under (’09) and gone on to win the tournament.
Mukesh’s love for the course remains intact as he carded a four-under on Friday for a four-day total of 20-under 260 to win the Express Exclusive-Chennai Open golf championship here, by a whopping margin of 11 strokes.
The 51-year-old clinched his third PGTI title at MGC links and a record 18th overall. He received a cheque of Rs.6 lakhs. Honey Baisoya of Delhi, who finished second with a combined total of 9-under 271 for the second place, had to be content with Rs. 4 lakhs. It was Honey’s career-best finish and also his fourth top-10 of the year.
“This is like my home course [in Mhow] — the greens are similar,” remarked Mukesh. “I’m delighted to have bagged my first win of the year. This gets me into contention for the Rolex Ranking title. I had narrowly lost out in the Rolex Ranking last year, having finished second. My first round of 61 had set up the tournament nicely for me.”
It was a consistent Mukesh that one witnessed on the last day — driving and putting with an old-fashioned ruggedness despite all but having sealed the title.
Having done a 34 in the first nine with two birdies, Mukesh ran riot in the back-nine by striking a hat-trick of birdies from the 10th to the 12th holes. He then recovered from the bushes and went on to sink his longest putt of the day, a 25-footer, for a birdie on the 14th; a shot for which he received applause from 40-odd spectators who were following him.
Having won over 100 professional victories in the domestic circuit, Mukesh said he will hang up his boots the moment he bags 125 titles. “That’s for sure — three more remaining” he said. “I might then probably coach my elder son Parvesh Raghuvanshi, who is 16-years-old.”
Bengaluru’s Udayan Mane and R. Mari Muthu finished joint third at six-under-274 along with Delhi’s Shamim Khan and Bangladesh’s Md Zamal Hossain Mollah.
The scores (Round 4): 260: Mukesh Kumar (61, 68, 65, 66); 271 Honey Baisoya (67, 66, 70 68); ); 274: R. Mari Muthu (68, 70, 68, 68); Udayan Mane (67, 70, 69, 68); Md. Zamal Hossain Mollah (69, 66, 69, 70); Shamim Khan (70, 67, 68, 69); 275: Veer Ahlawat (72, 68, 68, 67); C. Muniyappa (68, 72, 67, 68); Sanjay Kumar (68, 67, 69, 71); 276: Feroz Ali Mollah (70, 66, 72, 68); Gaurav Pratap Singh (67, 70, 70, 69); Abhinav Lohan (67, 69, 69, 71); Deepinder Singh Kullar (65, 68, 72, 71).
