Three years of anxiety and a host of runner-up finishes later Harmeet Kahlon finally broke the ice on the Hero Honda Golf Tour with a superb birdie on the final hole earning him a well deserved win at the Hero Golf Chandigarh Open 2003.
Kahlon's final round card of three-under 69 handed him a tournament tally of 11-under 205 and the winner's cheque of Rs 1,62,000. Earlier the tournament was reduced to a 54-hole affair after lightning and thunder-showers led to the third round being called-off.
Three strokes behind the winner, was second placed Amandeep Johl at eight-under 208. Veteran Kanpur pro Shiv Prakash made an impressive final round charge with his course record equaling seven-under 65, pole-vaulting him to the third position at seven-under 209. The course record was set in October 2001, by defending champion Arjun Singh, whose card of 65 came in the opening round of the Hero Golf Chandigarh Open 2001. Arjun won that event.
Kolkata's Feroz Ali was tied fourth with Delhi's Ajay Gupta at five-under 211, while Delhi's Gaurav Ghei and Jaiveer Virk finished tied sixth with Luckow's Vijay Kumar at four-under 212.
The relief was apparent on Kahlon's face. For too long has he been questioned about his failure to win a tournament on the Hero Honda Golf Tour.
That he is a class player was never in question, but far to frequently had Kahlon stumbled on the final block after dominating for the larger part of four days. In year 2000, his debut season Kahlon failed to win the BPGC Open finishing second to Digvijay Singh and from then on he pocketed the runner-up cheque in various corners of the country but the win proved to be a slippery customer.
Year 2002 saw Kahlon win the Hero Honda Masters, an event on the Asian PGA Tour and now he has finally broken the title drought on the Hero Honda Golf Tour.
"I am thrilled that the win has come on my home course in front of my friends and relatives," said the 32-year old. "I played solid golf this week," he said.
"Amandeep was also playing very well but he had a bad wrist today which prevented him from playing his natural game. As for me, I made sure that I minimised errors. This is something I have learnt while playing European and Asian PGA Tour events and it has served me very well as was apparent today," said the smiling golfer who credited his win to his wife and his sponsors India Cements.
Kahlon's round included birdies on the second, fourth and sixth on his front-nine. On his return journey, Kahlon dropped shots on the 12th and 15th due to erratic drives but made up with birdies on the 16th and the 18th.
Amandeep Johl, was a victim of circumstances. Last evening, an old injury in the 34-year old Johl's left wrist flared up again. Playing with a wrist support today, Johl was unable to drive the ball the way he normally does, time and again pulling the ball to the left of the fairway. "My driving is my biggest strength and once that aspect of my game let me down it was an uphill climb," said the SAIL sponsored golfer.
Putting all this behind him, Johl did give Kahlon a run for his money. Starting the day two-strokes behind Kahlon, Johl birdied the second but his bogey on the seventh saw Kahlon, courtesy a birdie blitz, take a five-stroke lead.
Johl birdied the eighth 12th and 13th to nudge to one-stroke behind Kahlon but an unfortunate double bogey on the 15th put paid to his title aspirations. "I should have hit a drive on the 15th but chose to tee of with a three-wood. I pulled my shot out of bounds and that was that,' he said.
A 20 feet birdie putt on the 17th saw him finish at two-under 70 and handed him the runner-up up cheque of Rs 1,12,000.
Virk braved challenge from 14-year old to win amateur title: Ajitesh Sandhu, all of 14 years old gave Girish Virk a run for his money but the latter just managed to keep abreast to win the amateur title by four strokes at a tally of two-over 218.
Virk shot a level par 72 today. The young Sandhu shot his third straight score of 74 for a tournament aggregate of six-over 222.
SCORES (after 54 holes): 205_Harmeet Kahlon(69,67,69); 208_Amandeep Johl(70,68,70); 209_Shiv Prakash(71,73,65); 211_Feroz Ali(73,71,67), Ajay Gupta(71,70,70); 212_Gaurav Ghei(74,68,70), Jaiveer Virk(70,72,70), Vijay Kumar(73,68,71); 213_Arjun Singh(69,74,70), Rafiq Ali(73,69,71); 214_Amritinder Singh(67,75,72); 215_Mohd. Islam(72,71,72); 216_Uttam Mundy(75,72,69), Mohd. Salim(72,70,74) AMATEURS: 218_Girish Virk(75,71,72), 222_Ajitesh Sandhu(74,74,74)
