Udayjit Bhalotia scripts a brilliant playoff victory at Tata Steel IGU Sub Junior & Feeder Tour Final

Overnight leader Mahipat Singh of Mhow finished in third place a stroke behind after shooting a disappointing eight-over par 79 for day followed by Rajkot’s Jay Pandya who finished his week at seventeen-over par 301. Delhi lad Prateek Malik, who won the Category B title, completed the top five with a score of eighteen-over par 302.

Trailing by two strokes at the start of the final round, Udayjit lost further ground on Mahipat when he made a double bogey on the 1st hole. He recovered a stroke on the very next hole with a birdie on the leader and also Rohan, who began his day trailing Udayjit by five strokes. Mahipat was steady at the top with eight pars and double bogey taking a two stroke lead at the turn. Meanwhile, Rohan was throwing down the challenge playing two groups ahead with a two-under front nine to be tied with Udayjit going out.

By the time Udayjit made par on the 12th hole, he was tied for the lead with Mahipat while Rohan who bogeyed the hole was a stroke behind. The Par 4 15th holes is where Rohan had his first share of the lead helped by Udayjit’s bogey and Mahipat’s third double of the day. The Kolkata lad made a nervous bogey on the 17th hole, which meant he needed a par on the final hole to force a play off with Rohan, who was the clubhouse leader with an even-par 71 for the day. Udayjit obliged and the two-way play off would begin on the 9th tee box.

Udayjit won the coin toss and chose to drive first and pulled his tee shot and chose a three wood to get out of the rough while Rohan landed his tee shot in the grass bunker on the right of the fairway. They both made bogey on the first play off hole to take it back to the 9th tee to separate the two. Udayjit again pulled it left, this time as far as 18th fairway while Rohan hit the first fairway on the opposite side. Udayjit chose to play along the 18th fairway to try an audacious approach on to the ninth green. Rohan saw his ball roll into the hazard near the 9th green that set him back a penalty stroke. From near the 18th green and above the trees in between, Udayjit hit the greenside bunker from where he almost holed out. He tapped in for par while Rohan could only rue the three bogeys he hit on the last three holes he played.

The winner tried to put his feelings into words said, “It was a very tense final few holes as I got to know about Rohan’s score while on the 17th.” He added, “I couldn’t manage the birdie on the final hole but was hoping the different approach to the 9th would work out for me and while it did, I’m really happy with this victory”

Prateek Malik strolled to a sixteen stroke victory in Category B while Delhi’s Aaryomaan Bose took the second place at 318 and Kolkata’s Rajvir Randhawa was placed third a further two strokes behind. Jay Vora and Kaustubh Mishra completed the top 5 at 321.

Category C was won by the brilliant Harshjeet Sethie of Gurgaon who carded a two-under par 69 for the day to take home the win by thirteen strokes over Rajib Ali of Kolkata followed by Gurgaon lad Saurav Rathi in third place at a gross of 239 on countback.

Overnight leader of Boys Category D, Shubham Jaglan of Delhi shot a two-over par 73 to seal an eleven stroke victory over Tushar Panna while Kolkata’s Kaushal Bagrodia was placed third a further four strokes behind at 167. Similarly Delhi’s Rakshita Singh clinched the Girls Category D over city mate Khushi Hooda by three strokes.

Top Scores (Final):

Category A & B:

299 Udayjit Bhalotia (72,81,70,76) (Won on the second playoff hole), Rohan Rajware (76,75,77,71); 300 Mahipat Singh (77,72,72,79); 301 Jay Pandya (76,76,73,76); 302 Prateek Malik (77,73,78,74); 303 Mayank Thakur (78,72,80,72), Rohit Kumar Bouri (75,77,75,76); 310 Karan Verma (84,80,71,75)

Category B:

302 Prateek Malik (77,73,78,74); 318 Aaryomaan Bose (82,80,77,79); 320 Rajvir Randhawa (79,77,79,85); 321 Jay Vora (80,82,78,81), Kaustubh Mishra (78,79,79,85); 323 Chinmaya Mahajan (78,82,82,81)

Category C:

221 Harshjeet Sethie (76,76,69); 234 Rajib Ali (79,78,77); 239 Saurav Rathi (81,81,77), Tanmay Rakheja (75,86,78); 243 Aryaman Mahant (82,83,78); 244 Krishiv Tekchandani (82,82,80)

Category D:

152 Shubham Jaglan (79,73); 163 Tushar Panna (84,79); 167 Kaushal Bagrodia (85,82); 168 Aryan Kaila (82,86); 179 Suveer Kapoor (86,93)

Girls Category D:

172 Rakshita Singh (87,85); 175 Khushi Hooda (91,84), Hitaashee Bakshi (89,86); 180 Anusha Borkar (95,85)