Aman Raj emerges champion at Telangana Golconda Masters

Aman Raj dished out an impressive performance of two-under 68 in the final round to emerge champion with 18-under 262 to clinch the Telangana Golconda Masters

Hyderabad: Aman Raj dished out an impressive performance of two-under 68 in the final round to emerge champion with 18-under 262 to clinch the Telangana Golconda Masters at the Hyderabad Golf Association (HGA) in Hyderabad on Saturday.

The golfer from Patna Aman (66-65-63-68) was the overnight leader by one shot. He took home a winning cheque for Rs 15 lakh and consolidated his second position on the TATA Steel PGTI Rankings. This is also his second title of the season. Mysuru’s Yashas Chandra (63-67-68-65) returned a 65 in the day to finish runner-up at 17-under 263.

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Aman Raj began the day with a birdie on the first but then had a topsy-turvy front-nine as he sank another birdie and at the same time dropped two bogeys, one a result of landing his tee shot out of bounds on the eighth. Aman then managed to get his focus back on the back-nine with birdies on the 10th, 13th and 14th, thus re-emerging as the top contender.

After Aman’s bogey on the 16th things got a little tense for him as Yashas Chandra, just one shot behind, was breathing down the leader’s neck. However, Aman managed to close it out and pip Yashas to the post with solid pars on the last two holes which included a nervy four-feet putt for victory on the 18th.

Aman, who bagged his third career title, said, “I just wanted to play my game today and not think about anything else. I had the ideal start with a birdie on the first. But the momentum just slowed down for me thereafter. I then knew that things were not going as per my plan so I had to just hang in there.”

Yashas Chandra’s 65 featured an eagle, five birdies and two bogeys. The Mysuru-based golfer took home the runner-up prize of Rs 10 lakh that helped him climb from 30th to 10th position in the PGTI’s money list. Akshay Sharma and Sachin Baisoya shot scores of 69 on day four to take joint third place at 16-under 264.