With Jyoti Randhawa scoring consecutive birdies in the first three holes after the play was resumed on Sunday, DLF Gurgaon looked set to pocket the title. However, the Silverglades Delhi golfers played exceptionally well under pressure to turn the tide in their favour. The first match between DLF Gurgaon's Digvijay Singh and Silverglades Delhi's Himmat Rai was poised evenly until Digvijay faltered with bogies at the 16th and 17th hole while Himmat Rai completed the round with 9 consecutive pars to claim a 2 stroke victory, putting his team one match ahead. Shamim Khan from Silverglades Delhi, playing against DLF Gurgaon's Abhinav Lohan, holed a chip from ten yards off the green on the 235 yard par 3 17th hole to take a one stroke lead, which eventually sealed the match in favour of Silverglades Delhi. He birdied on the 10th, 12th and 17th hole to leapfrog his opponent and on the 18th hole Shamim made a brilliant sand save from 30 yards to clinch the title for Delhi.
Speaking about the win the experienced Shamim Khan, who was trailing Abhinav Lohan by two-strokes the previous day, said, "This is an important win for me as it helps me carry my good form from last year into the current season. I had a very poor start to the round and was behind my opponent for a major part of the round. Nonetheless, my experience helped me claw my way back into the match."
Playing against DLF Gurgaon's Jyoti Randhawa in the final match of the encounter, 21-year-old Rashid Khan, who was on level par with Jyoti at the half-way mark, hit four consecutive birdies from 12th to 15th hole to stage a remarkable comeback to win the match by 2 strokes completing a clean sweep for his team. "It's great to win after being three strokes behind a champion player like Jyoti Randhawa. The thought process in a team event is totally different. One cannot attack all the time as you need to keep your teammates' scores in mind and have a greater responsibility towards the team," said Rashid Khan after his win. In contrast, speaking on the loss, DLF Gurgoan's Randhawa said, "We played really well through the tournament but Silverglades holed some crucial putts in the last few holes to take the game away from us.
In the third place play-off, Navratna Ahmedabad pipped Jaypee Greens Greater Noida in a sudden death encounter after the match score was tied one all. Vikrant Chopra registered a birdie on the second hole to beat Gaganjeet Bhullar to ensure a podium finish for last year's champions.
In the fifth place playoffs, Puravankara Bangalore fought hard against Shubhkamna Noida led by Jeev Milkha Singh, but eventually lost the encounter to finish 6th. With Jeev Milkha Singh winning his match against Puravankara Bangalore's Manav Jaini by 5 strokes giving his team a one match lead, Anirban Lahiri won against Shubhkamna Noida's Ashok Kumar by 3 strokes to level the scores. In the final encounter Shubhkamna Noida's Abhijit Singh Chadha and Om Prakash Chouhan were level at 7-over-79 and the match was then decided by sudden death playoffs which Abhijit Singh Chadha won over two holes to help Shubhkamna Noida finish fifth.
In the playoffs for the 7th and 8th positions, TAKE Chennai won against AVT Kolkata, powered by Khalin Joshi's win against former PGTI player of the year Chiragh Kumar. Dev Ellora Chandigarh finished ninth after they had failed to make it past the strokeplay rounds.
Scores:
Finals
Silverglades Delhi V/s DLF Gurgaon
Rashid Khan (3-under-69) beat Jyoti Randhawa (1-under-71)
Shamim Khan (1-over-73) beat Abhinav Lohan (2-over-74)
Himmat Rai (3-over-75) beat Digvijay Singh (5-over-77)
Third and fourth place playoffs
Jaypee Greens Greater Noida v/s Navratna Ahmedabad
Gaganjeet Bhullar (1-over-73) lost to Vikrant Chopra (1-over-73) on sudden death playoffs on the 20th Hole
Sanjay Kumar (3-over-75) lost to Mithun Perera (1-over-73)
R Murthy (par) beat Vinod Kumar (2-over-74)
Fifth and sixth place playoffs
Shubhkamna Noida v/s Puravankara Bangalore
Jeev Milkha Singh (Par) beat Manav Jaini (5-over-77)
Ashok Kumar (4-over-76) lost to Anirban Lahiri (1-over-73)
Abhijit Singh Chadha (7-over-79) beat Om Prakash Chouhan (7-over-79) on sudden death playoffs on 20th Hole
Seventh and eighth place playoffs
TAKE Chennai V/s AVT Kolkata
Anura Rohana (1-under-71) beat Rahil Gangjee (5-over-77)
Mukesh Kumar (6-over-78) lost to Shankar Das (1-over-73)
Khalin Joshi (3-over-75) beat with Chiragh Kumar (4-over-76)
