October 11, 2013. Kolkata lad Viraj Madappa completed a wire to wire victory when he annexed the IGU Rajasthan Junior Golf title at the Par-70 Rambagh Golf Club here on Friday. Viraj added a final round 1-under par 69 to finish the tournament at 8-under 272, ten shots clear of the second placed Manu Gandas to bag the honours in the top Category (A&B).
Manu brought in the day’s best card of 2-under 68 along with Tapendra Ghai and Pukhraj Singh Gill who finished with second and third with totals of 283 and 287 respectively. Shubham Narain was fifth at 291 while Prakhar Asawa was sixth at 292.
Meanwhile, Arjun Prasad won in Category B in a play-off with Karandeep Kochar after both the players had aggregated a tournament total of 295. Karthik Sharma finished third at 298 while Arjun Puri was fourth at 300.
Viraj, armed with a 11-shot cushion went about the task in brilliant fashion without committing any errors on his front nine including a couple of good saves for par. With a birdie on the par-5 eighth, the Indian team member of the Nomura Cup took the turn at 1-under. On the back nine, Viraj faltered a bit on the par-4 11th where he made a bogey but immediately made amends with a birdie on the very next hole. One more bogey on the 15th was followed by a birdie on the penultimate hole to finish the round at 1-under.
“I am thrilled to win here,” said the champions after the round. “My first round 62 was the clinching factor I guess after which I never felt threatened. I played some good golf this week and hope to carry my form in the Northern India next week,” said Viraj.
Top scores after 72 holes
Category A & B
272 Viraj Madappa (62, 70, 71, 69); 282 Manu Gandas (68, 72, 74, 68); 283 Tapendra Ghai (75, 68, 72, 68); 287 Pukhraj Singh Gill (68, 75, 76, 68); 291 Shubham Narain (68, 73, 76, 74); 292 Prakhar Asawa (73, 71, 75, 73); 293 Mohan Sardar (73, 73, 75, 72), Yuvraj Sandhu (72, 73, 74, 74); 295 Arjun Prasad (Cat B) (69, 80, 73, 73), Karandeep Kochar (Cat B) (77, 79, 68, 71); 297 Feroz Singh Garewal (76, 73, 73, 75); 298 Gurkirat Singh (74, 75, 77, 72), Kartik Sharma (Cat B) (74, 73, 74, 77)
Category B
295 Arjun Prasad (69, 80, 73, 73), Karandeep Kochar (77, 79, 68, 71); 298 Kartik Sharma (74, 73, 74, 77); 300 Arjun Puri (69, 82, 80, 69); 304 Kartik Digvijay Singh (77, 78, 72, 77); 305 Vignesh Thakur (75, 78, 77, 75); 306 Sarthak Kohli (76, 78, 78, 74), Saarthak Chhibber (82, 79, 76, 69); 308 Karan Sharma (71, 78, 80, 79); 310 Saptak Talwar (74, 81, 79, 76)
