Chikkarangappa wins Order of Merit

Feature by Anand Datla

December 13, 2014: After a season of healthy and robust competition, the PGTI and every player in it can look back upon another memorable passage in the evolving story of golf in India. S Chikkarangappa outplayed a host of strong rivals to emerge winner of the PGTI Rolex Order of Merit for 2014 with a comfortable 7.10 lakh margin over Om Prakash Chouhan. Shankar Das, Rashid Khan and Anura Rohana rounded out the top five for the season.

Chikkarangappa has been a dominant force this season, winning three and finishing inside the top 10 in eight of the ten events he entered this year. In fact Chikka won just as many events as the other four golfers in the top five of the order of merit. The Bengaluru golfer won nearly 36.90 lakhs in prize money this season and was then rewarded with a bonus of 30 lakhs for winning the order of merit.

With the competition going to the wire, Chikka needed every single Rupee he earned by winning the CG Open in the first week of December. The 16.16 lakhs he won in Mumbai helped him gain a comfortable edge over Chouhan.

Chouhan was also a consistent performer through the season, but he needed as many as fourteen events and eight top ten finishes to remain in the race with Chikka to the very end.

Shankar Das was the only golfer in the top five of the order of merit not to have won a single event. Das finished inside the top 10 in eight events. In a nice coincidence each of the top five golfers enjoyed a similar result – finishing in the top 10 eight times. Das finished third with less than 55,ooo separating him from Chouhan.

Rashid Khan, like Chikka played ten times, won once and ended in fourth place with earnings of 27.20 lakhs. Rohana was the best international, finishing in fifth with winnings amounting to nearly 22.50 lakhs.