Kolkata, November 14: Gauri Monga, returned her worst card over three days, but still managed to come up trumps to win the USHA Eastern India Ladies & Junior Girls Amateur Golf Championship 2013, which concluded at the Tollygunge Golf Club course. A former Indian Golf Union (IGU) Ladies tour winner, Gauri, who was lying third behind Gursimar Badwal and IGU Ladies Tour Order of Merit leader Gurbani Singh at the end of day two, carded a two over 72 on the final day, which eventually turned out to be enough to give her a one shot victory. This was Gauri’s second title on the IGU Ladies tour in the past one month. She had also won the USHA DGC Ladies open in Delhi last month. Currently lying fifth of the IGU ladies tour merit list, these victories are sure to move her up the rankings.
Gauri’s efforts by greatly aided by her two closest rivals on the course today. Both overnight leader Gursimar and second placed Gurbani had a horrendous day with six bogeys each. In Gurbani’s case, lack of tournament play clearly showed, as someone who at worst plays percentage golf and is known to finish strong, just could not get her putter going. She was playing after a gap of more than a month and had not participated in the two previous tournaments. Gursimar, after registering two sub-par rounds over two days quite inexplicably lost her lead, nerve and eventually the title to finish joint second alongside Gurbani. For the record, Gurbani carded a five over 75 while Gursimar returned a score of six over 76 on the final day. Seher Atwal recorded the best card of the final day, carding an even par 70 to finish seventh in the overall standings.
Aditi Ashok of Bangalore won the Category A section with a score of 219 followed by Astha Madan on 221. They also finished fourth and fifth respectively in the ladies section. In the Category B section Suchitra Ramesh (242) emerged tops with Amrita Anand (247) in second position. Sifat Sagoo (250) and Tanishka Kumar finished one-two in the Category C section of the tournament.was leading over Khushi Nehra (172).
