Hyderabad: Chandigarh’s Ajeetesh Sandhu rounded off a dominant week by winning the Golconda Masters at the Hyderabad Golf club here on Sunday.
His final round six-under-65 took his tournament tally to 23-under-261, and helped him fashion a four-stroke victory — his first in three years.
An ecstatic Ajeetesh said: “I’m glad to finally get over the line after such a long time. It’s been a special week as I also registered my best tournament score, and also my best single round score of nine-under in the first round.”
Gurgaon’s Shubhankar Sharma, the winner of last week’s PGTI event in Bengaluru, recorded another brilliant finish as he ended runner-up at 19-under-265 after a final round of three-under-68 at the Rs 40 lakh event.
Ajeetesh took home the winner’s cheque of Rs 6 lakh to climb to third (from 14th) in the 2016 Rolex Rankings. Shubhankar’s second-place finish moved him up from fourth to second spot in the money list with season’s earnings of Rs 8,50,000. Feroz Ali Mollah, who finished tied seventh this week, continues to be the leader with total earnings of Rs 10,54,260.
Ajeetesh (62-68-66-65) carried a one-shot advantage into the final day. On the first seven holes on Sunday, Ajeetesh and Shubhankar (66-66-65-68) matched each other stroke for stroke as both picked up two birdies each with the former hanging on to his slender one-shot lead.
The match swung decisively in Ajeetesh’s favour after he birdied the eighth and 11th while Shubhankar conceded a disastrous double-bogey on the 10th where he lost his ball after pushing his drive to the right.
“The birdie on the closing hole in Round Three was very reassuring as it gave me the lead for the third day running,” Ajeetesh said.
“I kept up the intensity today. The birdie on the fourth today was my best of the week since I landed my tee shot within three feet on that long Par-3. Once I birdied the 11th and 12th, I went five-up with six holes to play. From there on, I knew if I just played well, I would easily negotiate the last stretch,” he said.
“Winning is a habit, the more you win, the more you get used to it. Now it’s about taking the momentum forward,” said Ajeetesh, who played with Anirban Lahiri and Ganganjeet Bhullar during his junior and amateur days.
