April 12, 2014: Aman Raj of Patna not only signed the best card of the day with a round of 2-under par 70 but emerged as the best player of the tournament when he captured the Tata Steel Northern India Amateur Golf Championship at Delhi Golf Club here on Friday. The last round effort of 2-under par 70 left Aman a nine-shot winner over the experienced Simarjeet Singh of Noida.
Aman finished with a tournament tally of 1-over 289 while Simarjeet shot a final round 72 to end up at 298. Arjun Sharma was third at 300 while strong challenger Pratap Atwal who trailed the leader by just a solitary shot after the third round, shared the fourth spot along with Vikram Rana at 301. Samarth Dwivedi and Udayan Mane were tied for the sixth place at 303 while Rohan Rana and Hemendra Chaudhary ended up tied for the eighth position at 304.
“I am happy to win a back to back title at the same venue,” said the champion. “The victory at the Delhi NCR Cup had definitely boosted my morale but it wasn’t an easy track to play on,” he added.
In what was poised to be an interesting affair especially when the golfers were bunched together with Aman leading by a shot at the start of the final round, it fizzled out to be a fight for the bridesmaid finish. Aman began with a birdie on the par-5 opening hole but was back to square with a bogey on the par-4 third. A birdie on the par-3 fifth was followed by consecutive bogeys on the seventh and eighth as he took the turn at 1-over.
Meanwhile, Simarjeet caught fire by making four birdies on the 1st, 2nd, 5th and eighth against a lone bogey on the third to reduce the lead to three shots after the first nine. Aman upped his game in the later part of his back nine four birdies in the last five holes (14th, 15th, 17th 18th) against a bogey on the 13th as he surged ahead never to look back until he wore the crown. Simarjeet made three bogeys on his back nine to take the second position.
“My main threat was Pratap who has a solid game and is capable of shooting low numbers. However with him struggling with his game on the front nine where he went 3-over, I didn’t leave it to chance after that,” said Aman who earned 60 valuable points to move up on the IGU Order of Merit.
Top scores after 72 holes
289 Aman Raj (74, 70, 75, 70); 298 Simarjeet Singh (75, 75, 76, 72); 300 Arjun Sharma (77, 73, 78, 72); 301 Pratap Atwal (72, 75, 73, 81), Vikram Rana (78, 75, 74, 74); 303 Samarth Dwivedi (70, 79, 77, 77), Udayan Mane (75, 76, 76, 76); 304 Rohan Rana (76, 76, 73, 79), Hemendra Chaudhary (77, 70, 78, 79); 305 Manav Das (72, 80, 76, 77), BR Raja (76, 78, 76, 75), Giriraj Singh (78, 73, 80, 74).
