Samarth Dwivedi wins Southern Tour

Bengaluru, June 20: Samarth Dwivedi finished what he set out to do today morning by recording a wire-to-wire victory at the Tata Steel Southern India Amateur 2014, which was played over the week at the Par-72 Karnataka Golf Association here. He shot a three-over-par 75 today to finish at a gross of six-under-par 282 and claim the championship by a four stroke margin over Delhi’s Pratap Atwal who finished in second place followed by local lad Udayan Mane in third.

Viraj Madappa of Kolkata who came within two strokes of the leader after just two holes eventually finished in the fourth place at two-over par 290 followed by Syed Saqib Ahmed and Pukhraj Singh Gill tied in the fifth place at four-over-par 292. Arjun Sharma, who brought in the best card of the day of four-under-par 68 finished in tied 7th place alongside tour veteran Jasjeet Singh with a gross of five-over-par 293.

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Samarth, who began the day with a healthy seven stroke advantage began with a par while Viraj and Pratap made birdies and each gained a stroke on him on the very first hole itself. A triple bogey 7 by Samarth on the 2nd to go along with another birdie for Viraj reduced the lead to two strokes. Two further bogeys for Samarth reduced the lead to a solitary stroke by the 8th hole, this time it was Pratap Atwal who was the closest. With Udayan Mane firing on all cylinders in the group ahead, it was his turn to close the gap to two strokes through 68 holes. Mane’s challenge eventually lost steam as he dropped three strokes on his final three holes while Pratap finished a steady even-par 72 round.

“I’m elated with this win and winning a zonal event is always special.” Said Samarth, who was showered with a fusion on beverages by his friends when he finished. He added, “I had a few tense moments during the round but my caddy kept updating me about the scores and I was able to pull through comfortably in the end.”

Top Scores (Final):

282 Samarth Dwivedi (68,69,70,75); 286 Pratap Atwal (70,70,74,72); 287 Udayan Mane (75,72,68,72); 290 Viraj Madappa (69,73,72,76); 292 Syed Saqib Ahmed (73,72,76,71), Pukhraj Singh Gill (73,69,73,77); 293 Arjun Sharma (77,70,78,68), Jasjeet Singh (72,72,78,71); 295 Vikram Rana (74,75,76,70), Hemendra Chaudhary (76,72,73,74)