Vijay Kumar wins
Royal Challenge golf

In a nerve-racking final, Vijay Kumar piped fancied Jyoti Randhawa on the first play-off hole, after the two tied at one-under 287, to win the inaugural Royal Challenge Grand Prix golf in Noida on Saturday.

Vijay has had some good finishes this year, but this was his first title.

The third player in the lead group, Mukesh Kumar slipped with a one-over 73 and finished tied for fourth, his 13th top ten finish in 14 events.

But the player who made a quiet move upwards was Gaurav Ghei. He carded his first sub par round with a brilliant surge with four birdies in the last five holes. That became all the more creditable as it came after a horrifying start on the back nine, where he had three bogeys from the 11th to the 13th holes.

Uttam Mundy of Kolkata shared the fourth spot with Mukesh Kumar, both finishing with totals of two-over 290.

Sanjay Kumar was sixth, while Jumman, Shiv Prakash and Rohtas Singh shared the seventh place and amateur Jasjit Singh of GAIL completed the top ten.

Jyoti started the day with a par on the par-five first hole, but then dropped a shot each on the second and third.

Vijay started with a birdie, but despite bogeying the third, he was two strokes ahead.

Vijay then played steady golf parring the next six holes on the front nine, while Jyoti pulled himself together with birdies on the sixth and eighth and at the turn, both were once again alevel.

Mukesh, meanwhile, double bogeyed the first hole and dropped another shot on the seventh for a three-over front nine.

On the back nine, Vijay dropped a shot each on the 10th and 12th, while Jyoti bogeyed the 10th, and then birdied the 13th to suddenly go two strokes ahead. A bogey by Jyoti on the 16th narrowed the gap to one and then Vijay came up with a clutch performance on the last two holes.

On the difficult 17th, where a huge waterbody stared the golfers when they teed off, Vijay birdied to come alevel. Vijay made a sandy birdie as got out of the sand very well and holed out for a birdie.

Jyoti came very close to a tree, but recovered well to par. However, the lead was gone.

On the 18th, Jyoti went into the water with his tee shot, as he chose a driver instead of two-iron, while Vijay went into the bunker with his second shot. Jyoti took a one-shot penalty, and then came up with a superb shot, which was his third to come within five feet for an excellent par.

Meanwhile, Vijay also hauled himself out the bunker and parred for to send the match into a play-off.

In the play-off, again both players were in some trouble with the tee shot. Vijay, from behind the trees, hit a perfect second shot and Jyoti left himself a rather long putt for birdie. He made only a par, while Vijay took his time and holed out a four-footer for the birdie and the title and a cheque of Rs 97, 200.

Local golfer Jasjit Singh emerged as the top amateur with a round of 70, which was actually the best card of the day. He finished tenth overall, and won his first amateur title in a pro tournament.

Jasjit tallied nine-over 297 for the tournament.

Final scores: 287: Vijay Kumar, Jyoti Randhawa, 289: Gaurav Ghei, 290: Uttam Mundy, Mukesh Kumar, 292: Sanjay Kumar, 295: Jumman, Shiv Prakash, Rohtas Singh, 297: Jasjit Singh (a), Arjun Atwal, Devendra Patel, 298: Ali Sher, Ranjit Singh, 299: Shamim Khan, Mohd. Islam, Jaiveer Virk, 300 Naman Dawar, 301: Vivek Bhandari, 302: Bhoop Singh.