Viraj Madappa seals amateur victory

Edited by Anand Datla

Kolkata, November 14: Howntown favourite Viraj Madappa closed out a brilliant wire-to-wire victory with an even par 70 today at the Par – 70 Tollygunge Club here. He comfortably sealed the issue at the Tata Steel West Bengal Amateur 2014 by no less than six strokes with a gross of ten-under par 270.

Noida’s Samarth Dwivedi matched him today but could not get close enough to mount a challenge and ended up taking the second place. A stroke behind him was Trishul Chinnappa who carded one-under par 69 for the day and took the third place by himself at gross of three-under par 277. A further four strokes behind was the duo of Aman Raj and Order of Merit leader Udayan Mane at one-over par 281 followed by All India Amateur Champion Pratap Atwal a stroke behind at two-over par 282.

With a maiden victory on the Tata Steel Amateur Tour in sight, Viraj started with a couple of pars before a bogey on the 3rd hole cut down his lead to five strokes. He restored the advantage on the very next hole with a solid birdie 3. Another bogey on the 6th hole was followed by a birdie on the Par 3 8th hole for him to reach the 10th tee still leading by six strokes.

On his gameplan for the day, Viraj went on to say, “All I wanted to do out there was play steady golf and try and maintain the six stroke cushion for as long as possible.”

But there was no charge from either Samarth or Trishul on the back nine with neither finding birdies easy to come by and even though Viraj did manage to drop a stroke to go one-over par for the day through 13, he was always in control. He duly obliged the gallery gathered around the 18th green with a birdie for a grandstand finish.

“First wins on any tour are always special and winning in Kolkata makes it even more special.” Said Viraj. He added, “This win is an important step up in my amateur career and I’m looking forward to many more.”

Top Scores (Final):

270 Viraj Madappa (65,66,69,70); 276 Samarth Dwivedi (68,66,72,70); 277 Trishul Chinnappa (71,63,74,69); 281 Aman Raj (68,68,72,73), Udayan Mane (72,71,67,71); 282 Pratap Atwal (72,68,69,73); 283 Vikram Rana (72,70,69,72), Pukhraj Singh Gill (71,68,74,70); 285 Zubin Nijhawan (70,71,68,76), Arjun Sharma (73,72,68,72); 286 Anant Singh Ahlawat (71,73,69,73), Hemendra Chaudhary (74,69,71,72); 287 Sunit Chowrasia (68,72,75,72), Md. Wasil (72,72,70,73); 288 Harjot Singh Soni (74,72,72,70)