Mukesh Kumar: Old guard strikes back

Feature by Anand Datla

March 08, 2015: The past two weeks have been an interesting mix of the old and new on the PGTI Tour. While the young men have been doing all they can to make an impression on India’s ever changing golfing landscape, the old guard have underlined their desire to remain a big part of the conversation with their performances in recent weeks. In Cochin last week, Mukesh Kumar played some consistently superlative golf to end his title drought and soar straight to the top of the Rolex Order of Merit.

Kumar won INR 825,000 in Cochin to take his winnings this season to INR 1,425,000 and gain a lead of nearly INR 400,000 over the second placed Shamim Khan (INR 1,057,865). Interestingly, Mukesh missed the cut at the Golconda Masters, but finished inside the top ten in the other three events he played this season.

Khan’s earnings have been healthy after he managed to finish inside the top 10 in each of the four events so far. Unfortunately for the humble golfer, the loss to Harendra Gupta in the playoff in Hyderabad was a painful outcome in an otherwise good start.

The winner of the Golconda Masters, Harendra Gupta, occupies third spot with an earnings of INR 784,460 – most of which has come from winning the tournament a week ago.

The first four events this season have seen a different winner, with N Thangaraja taking the other title apart from the top three men. The Lankan is in fourth place on the list with his winnings of over 6 lakhs.

Shubhankar Sharma completes the top five, with his winnings just under the six lakh mark. Chikkarangappa, who has only played three of the four events this season is lying just outside the top 10, having won a little more than four lakhs this season.

Rookie Khalin Joshi has made an impressive start to his life on the PGTI Tour. His winnings have amounted to just over 4.5 lakhs to take the eighth spot. Khalin has made the cut in all four events and has already taken two top 10 finishes.