Jadeja no match,outplayed

“I didn’t have a great day of golf,” said the top-seeded Mukesh after the match. “I was always very confident,knowing that I wouldn’t let it get away even if he won a few. But you tend to get better as the level of opposition goes up,so I’m not worried.”

The soft sunshine-lit morning at the Delhi Golf Club had started with both Mukesh and Jadeja making a mess of their first shots halving the first hole. But by the next eight holes the Mhow player had run away with it. He first took the lead on the second hole with an eight-foot par putt as Jadeja missed his. Mukesh’s first birdie came as late as the par-five eighth,but making the turn,he was still cruising at six-up. He stuttered soon after,missing an eight-footer for par on the 10th after Jadeja had made one with a putt as long,leaving the former cricketer giggling about getting something to “tell the wife about”.

Jadeja failed to chip out from the rough with his second shot on the 12th to lose another hole,and the margin was back to six with just six to play. But as Jadeja mock-complainingly asked if they needed to play any longer,Mukesh played another terrible hole to extend it even further. He got onto the 13th green in three shots after snuggling his first into the trees on the right and followed it up with some weak putting to double bogey. Jadeja bogeyed,but still won. And so it was extended to the 14th,which they both birdied to finally finish.

Double joy
Mukesh had another reason to cheer on the opening day as another Mhow player,mentored by him,effected a turnaround and an upset. Om Prakash Chouhan had started with trailing to Himmat Singh Rai,but finally beat the 12th seed and the brand-new winner on the tour 2-up. Anirban Lahiri,who shot a course record at the SAIL Open two weeks ago and followed that up with a fourth place at last week’s Black Mountain Masters on the Asian Tour,had a miserable debut to his professional matchplay career. Lahiri,who admitted to too much travelling taking a toll on his game,was beaten 4&3 by Amit Dube.

Fourth seed Digvijay Singh had a short stay too,losing 3&1 to local player Jaiveer Virk after a day of bad hitting and bad putting. Virk took the lead with a par on the ninth,and saving pars was all he needed to do as Digvijay kept dropping shots.

Second seed Shamim Khan had it easy against Amritinder Singh,as did SSP Chowrasia against Vishal Singh.

Key results:
Mukesh Kumar (1) beat Ajay Jadeja (64) 5&4; Shamim Khan (2) beat Amritinder Singh (63) 4&3; Rahul Ganapathy (3) beat Sheeraz Kalra 6&4; Digvijay Singh (4) lost to Jaiveer Virk 3&1; Ashok Kumar beat Dayal Singh 2&1; C Muniyappa (6) beat Arjun S Chaudhri (59) 1-up; Anirban Lahiri lost to Amit Dube (58) 4&3; Harendra P Gupta (8) beat Anthony Choat (57) 19th hole; Arjun Singh (9) beat Joseph Chakola 4&3; Md Siddikur Rahman (10) lost to Shaurya Singh (55) 3&2; SSP Chowrasia (16) beat Vishal Singh (49) 5&4; Gaurav Ghei (40) beat Manav Jaini (25)