Kang knocks out fancied Mane

H S Kang knocked out the country’s top amateur Udayan Mane in a thrilling match at the Tata Steel All India Amateur Golf Championship at the Karnataka Golf Association on Thursday.

With both players locked all square after the regulation 18 holes, Kang made a birdie on the par-5, fifth play-off hole to seal a spot in the pre-quarterfinals. In a minor upset, Rahul Ravi defeated Samarth Dwivedi one up while another home boy Syed Saqib Ahmed defeated defending champion Pratap Atwal 3&1.

Top seed Viraj Madappa defeated Delhi’s Md Wasil 5&4. With three birdies on the front nine, he took the turn at a comfortable 4 up. With Wasil making a double bogey on the Par-5 11th hole, Viraj went 5 up and squared the next three holes to wrap up the match on the 14th hole itself.

In the Kang-Mane match, the former took the turn 1 up after winning the 9th hole. Mane birdied the Par-4 12th hole to get back on level terms. The lead exchanged hands before a play-off was forced. Both hit pars on the first four holes before Kang’s birdie settled the issue.

“What a brilliant result for me today,” said Kang. “The idea was to not let Mane run away with the match early on and I was glad to be able to take it deep and emerge victorious.”
In other notable results, Trishul Chinnappa won against Gunvir Rana on the 19th with a birdie, Aman Raj defeated young Kartik Sharma 6&5 while Pukhraj Singh Gill beat Feroz Singh Garewal with a par on the 19th hole. Fifth seed Yashas Chandra lost to Anshul Patel 2&1.

Top results (Round of 32, prefix denotes the seeding): 1-Viraj Madappa bt 32-Md Wasil 5&4; 31-Rahul Ravi bt 2-Samarth Dwivedi 1 up; 3-Harimohan Singh bt 30-Kurush Heerjee 3&1; 4-Kushal Singh bt 29-Aalaap I L 2&1; 28-Anshul Patel bt 5-Yashas Chandra 2&1; 6-Trishul Chinnappa bt 27-Gunvir Rana 19th; 26-Vikram Rana bt 7-Devin Suri 3&2; 8-Aman Raj bt 25-Kartik Sharma 6&5; 9-Syed Saqib Ahmed bt 24-Pratap Atwal 3&1; H S Kang bt Udayan Mane 23rd.