Yashas emerges champ

Mysuru lad Yashas Chandra stormed back from a four-shot deficit to clinch the Rotary Bangalore-IGU Karnataka State Amateur Golf Championship at the Eagleton Golf Resort here on Friday.

Advantage lay in the hands of overnight leader Kartik Sharma who had carded 210 after three rounds, against Yashas’ 214 but the final outcome was in tune with the trend over the last three days, with different leaders emerging at the end of each day.

Yashas blazed through the course on the day that mattered, carding a 66 (six-under) to finish the tournament on 280, just one shot ahead of Kartik (71) and Chandigarh’s Anant Singh Ahlawat, who carded a fabulous 65 on the day. Anant was runner-up thanks to his final day’s card while Kartik clinched the second runner-up spot.

A close finish ensued after Yashas found the bunker on the 17th hole and struggled to get out, leaving his ball a considerable distance from the green with his second shot. 

The 22-year-old could only manage a bogey and despite a birdie on the final hole, Yashas had to wait for Kartik before he could begin celebrating.  

Needing nothing short of a birdie to force a play-off, the West Bengal player was left to make a difficult downhill 24-foot putt, Kartik saw the ball stop agonisingly close to the hole to end his campaign on a disappointing note.

“I did really poorly yesterday but I’m glad with the comeback,” said Yashas, who clinched his first title of the year. “I didn’t really think of the previous score and came in knowing I had to go all out to win it. I knew that eight or seven under would be enough and if not for the bogey, I would have got there. But luckily for me, I managed,” added Yashas, who fired seven birdies on the day.

Sifat Sagoo, with a score of 225, resisted stiff competition from Anika Varma (228) to emerge champion in the ladies category.

Final standings: Men: 280: Yashas Chandra (71, 69, 74, 66); 281: Anant Singh Ahlawat (76, 75, 65, 65), Kartik Sharma (68, 70, 72, 71); 283: Jairaj Singh Sandhu (71, 74, 73, 65); 284: Kshitij Naved Kaul (72, 76, 72, 64), Dhruv Sheoran (72, 74, 68, 70), Harimohan Singh (66, 73, 74, 71), Pukhraj Singh Gill (73, 69, 70, 72).

Ladies: 225: Sifat Sagoo; 228: Anika Varma; 230: Nayanika Sanga.

Category A: 225: Sifat Sagoo (75, 79, 71); 231: Ishvari Prasanna (78, 74, 79); 232: Jahanvi Bakshi (78, 79, 75).

Category B: 228: Anika Varma (74, 76, 78); 230: Nayanika Sanga (82, 76, 72); 231: Rhea Purvi Saravanan (80, 76, 75).

Category C: 233: Rishika M (82, 75, 76); 240: Hunar Mittal (85, 77, 78); Rashmi S (82, 78, 80).