Hyderabad: Chandigarh’s Ajeetesh Sandhu continued his love affair with the city of Hyderabad as he won the Golconda Masters for the second year running at the picturesque Hyderabad Golf Club on Sunday.
Ajeetesh (70-67-73-63), lying a lowly 17th, five shots off the lead, after the penultimate round on Saturday, pulled off a miracle on the final day as he fired a dazzling eight-under-63 to take his total to 11-under-273 and as a result earn his place in the playoff against Bengaluru’s Khalin Joshi (65-70-70-68) in the second event of the PGTI season. Joshi, the overnight joint leader, posted a three-under-68 in the final round.
Ajeetesh finally sealed his third professional title with an eight feet birdie conversion on the first playoff hole (played on the 18th) even as Khalin could only manage a bogey after finding the bunker with his tee shot.
The winner didn’t have the best start to the day as he struggled on the first three holes. He found the water on the third where he dropped a bogey. The turnaround for the 28-year-old began from the fourth where he drained a 25-footer for birdie. From there on, he went on to add an eagle and six more birdies to match the tournament’s best single-round score achieved earlier in the week by Pune’s Sameer Shaikh.
Ajeetesh scored heavily on the par-5s. He eagled the eighth from 20 feet and sank birdies on the sixth, 10th and 17th to be five-under for the day on the par-5s. A magnificent tee shot set up a tap-in birdie for him on the seventh. He also drove the green on the 15th and rolled in a 25-footer on the 16th that contributed towards his hat-trick of birdies in the closing stages.
Khalin Joshi was on course for his fourth win being four-under for the day through the first 10 holes thanks to a hot putter. However, a missed birdie opportunity from three feet on the 14th followed by an erratic tee shot that led to a bogey on the 15th, saw him lose his grip of the match. Veteran Mukesh Kumar struck a 68 in round four to clinch third place at 10-under-274. Delhi’s Shamim Khan (69) was a further shot back in fourth place.
