Viraj Madappa wins at Tata Steel Eastern India Amateur

His second victory on the tour saw Viraj going 1 Up immediately with a birdie on the 1st hole. Sunit remained in touch with the favourite as he squared the match on the 5th hole and again on the 8th hole with a birdie 3. He bogeyed the next two to hand Viraj a 2 Up lead.

He matched Viraj stroke for stroke for the next four holes before another birdie gave Viraj a 3 Up lead which he extended to take a commanding 4 Up lead after the first 18 holes.

“I’m striking the ball as good as I ever have and my putting is also coming along pretty okay,” said Viraj.

On the 20th hole (2nd hole of the course), both hit birdies while on the Par 5 22nd hole (4th hole of the course), Viraj’s drive set him up to go 5 Up.

Sunit would concede the 25th hole (7th hole of the course) when he found the hazard as Viraj put the match effectively out of reach with a timely birdie on the very next hole to 7 Up with ten holes to play.

Sunit could not come up with birdies on the next four holes as they were squared with a simple tap in for par gave Viraj the match with 6 holes to go.

“It has been a great two weeks in Kolkata for me and I’m ecstatic that I’ve ended up with two wins,” said the winner.

He said, “I had to miss a few events this year on the tour due to school exams, so I was playing catch up and this puts me in the right frame of mind for the Tata Steel 114th Amateur Golf Championship of India.”