Mumbai, 22-02-2014
Navratna Ahmedabad lift Louis Philippe Cup
Ahmedabad come from behind to defeat Puravankara Bangalore 2-1
Navratna Ahmedabad claimed top honours in the Rs 1.2 crore prize money Louis Philippe Cup 2014. The Ahmedabad team won the third edition of the tournament after defeating strong contenders Puravankara Bangalore by a 2-1 margin in the strokeplay final played at the par-70 Bombay Presidency Golf Club in Chembur, Mumbai on Saturday.
The Navratna team had earlier triumphed, when they defeated the same opponents, Bangalore, 3-0 on their home turf in the first edition.
Navratna owe much of their success to their Sri Lankan pro Mithun Perera who sunk a crucial birdie on the par-5 18th hole to finish with a card of 2-under-68 and score over M. Dharma, who made some costly mistakes including a triple bogey on the par-4 9th hole. However, Dharma still managed to complete the round with a score of 1-under-69 to lose the tie narrowly. Perera completed a hat-trick of titles in three weeks having won the Eagleburg Open in Bangalore and Standard Chartered Open in Colombo.
Earlier, Navratna captain Vikrant Chopra lost the opening singles to Anirban Lahiri, India’s top-ranked golfer in the world at 108. The Bangalore professional made 5 birdies and an equal number of bogeys for a par score of 70 while Chopra had just 2 birdies and 3 bogeys to finish at 71.
The second singles was also a close contest with Ahmedabad’s Vinod Kumar putting a great performance of the back nine, hitting four birdies for a score of 2-under-68, while his rival Chikkarangappa also enjoyed a good outing by firing 3 birdies and dropping 2 shots for a card of 1-under-69.
Chopra later mentioned that it was a combined team effort which helped them win. “I am content that we won. It was a collective team effort and that is what we wanted. The draw also went in our favour as I looked forward to play against Lahiri. We had also pinned hopes on Mithun since he is high on confidence and has helped the team by giving us some good advice,” said Chopra.
Mithun was all praise for his teammates. “Vikrant and Vinod played good golf. We rallied well as a team and supported each other and were confident that we could do it,” stated Mithun, who has not lost any event in the last three weeks.
Himmat Rai came up with a superb late charge to help Krrish Colombo turn the tables on AVT Kolkata in the third place match. Trailing by three shots against Shankar Das and with just three holes remaining, Himmat stamped his class with two successive birdies before signing off with a neat eagle to clinch the match in his favour. The 26-year-old Rai with a score of 71 defeated Das (72). K Prabagaran (71) lost to Rahil Gangjee (67) before N Thangaraja (70) overcame Chiragh Kumar (71) in the third singles match.
The Ahmedabad team received the winners cheque of Rs 36 lakh, while the second best team Bangalore pocketed Rs 24 lakhs and Krrish Colombo went home richer by Rs 18 lakhs.
Louis Philippe Cup 2014 – (Finals): Navratna Ahmedabad beat Puravankara Bangalore 2-1 -- Vikrant Chopra (71) lost to Anirban Lahiri (70); Vinod Kumar (68) beat S. Chikkarangappa (69); Mithun Perera (68) beat M. Dharma (69).
3-4th place: Krrish Colombo beat AVT Kolkata 2-1 -- Himmat Rai (71) beat Shankar Das (72), Prabhagaran (71) lost to Rahil Gangjee (67), N Thangaraja (70) beat Chiragh Kumar (71).
5-6th place: DLF Gurgaon beat TAKE Chennai 3-0; 7-8th place: Shubhkamna Delhi 2-1.
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