December13, 2013: Top seed Karan Taunk survived some tense moments after his opponent Aman Raj ranked 21 places below him, showed resilience before surrendering on the 22nd hole in a quarterfinal tie of the Tata Steel 113th Amateur Golf Championship of India being played at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club here on Friday. Karan Taunk had earlier quelled the challenge of Simarjeet Singh 5 & 4 while Aman Raj had ousted Bangladeshi challenger Mohd. Nazim 4 & 2 in the pre-quarters.
However it was Delhi lad Pratap Atwal who caused the biggest flutter of the day as the plumpy lad, seeded 14th, first sent third seed Udayan Mane home with a 2 & 1 victory in the pre-quarterfinal and then beat Samarth Dwivedi (Seed No. 11) 3 & 2 to enter the last four stage. In another upset of the day, Gagan Verma seeded tenth showed second seed Viraj Madappa the door with a clinical 2 & 1 win to set up a clash with Pratap in the semifinal. Bangladesh’s Sajib Ali (4th seed) kept his slate clean with a convincing 4 & 3 victory over Ankur Chadha to reach the semifinals.
The Karan-Aman match evoked a huge response from the spectators as Aman had stretched Karan post the 18th hole. In fact Karan was 1-up after the 16th and failed to make an up and down from the right bunker on the par-3 17th as parity was restored. Then ensued a close fight as both made birdies on the par-5 18th to be all square after the regulation round.
The Patna lad hit a brilliant second shot onto the green on the par-5 19th hole while Karan holed a testing 15-footer as once again both made birdies to halve the hole. Aman missed a golden chance on the second extra hole as he missed an eight-footer birdie putt. After the third hole was halved with pars, Aman found water on his tee shot while Karan reached the green on the par-5 fourth hole of the course in two to close the chapter.
Results (Quarterfinals) (Seeding in parenthesis)
Karan Taunk (1) bt Aman Raj 22nd hole; Md. Sajib Ali (B’desh) (4) bt Ankur Chadha (12) 4 & 3; Gagan Verma (10) bt Viraj Madappa (7) 2 & 1; Pratap Atwal (14) bt Samarth Dwivedi (11) 3 & 2
Semifinal line-up: Karan Taunk (1) Vs. Md. Sajib Ali; Gagan Verma (10) Vs. Pratap Atwal (14)
