Rashid asserts his supremacy

Under the summer afternoon sunshine that makes all things lazy,Rashid Khan completed the formalities of wrapping up a job he had begun four days earlier.

The Delhi youngster,who had raced to the top of the LG Haryana Open Amateur leaderboard with a four-shot lead on day one of the tournament at the Golden Greens golf course,shot a three-under 69 on Friday to win the first tournament of the season. He finished with a nine-under 207 aggregate. The whopping ten-shot margin came despite the slight alteration in the number of rounds he had to build it the tournament was cut short to a three-day affair because of the elections in the Capital on Thursday.

With the big lead going into the final round on a course he likes,it would have needed something of a disaster for Rashid to give it away. After third-placed Akshay Butta birdied the second hole and Rashid left with a 15-foot long par putt on the third hole,it did seem for a bit that it might get a little tight. But Rashid calmly stroked the ball in to stay on four-under overall,and then soon after,launched into attack mode.

On the par-five fifth,the 18-year-old was on the green in three with a short chip that left him with a small putt. He followed that up with another birdie on the next hole,sinking a long putt on the par-four to pull ahead. When he birdied the eighth hole,having landed barely six feet away with his tee shot,to be nine-under overall,it effectively ended any fight.

He dropped a shot on the ninth hole,plugging it deep into the sand in the bunker with his second shot and then failing to drop the eight-footer for par. The back nine was then marred with some awry hitting that left him scrambling around the greens,but he saved par each time he looked to be in trouble.

Rashids partners in the leadergroup Butta and Aditya Bhandarkar had faded away early,but Rahul Bajaj,playing much ahead,was moving up stealthily. Bajaj finally shot a five-under 67,but with 75s in the first two rounds,was too far back to be any sort of threat to the leader.

Rashid ended in style,with a good putt for birdie on the finishing hole. The 66 in the first round put me in front and I knew I just had to play consistent golf after that, Rashid said after his win. But he admitted that the hitting needed some work. My driving was completely off on the last two days. Scoring well is as important as winning titles,and I have to make sure all aspects of my game are perfect, he said.

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Bajaj jumped from tied 15th to second place on the leaderboard. Abhishek Jha and Gagan Verma also moved up on the last day,finishing in a tie for third place with rounds of 69 and 70 respectively.

Leaderboard
1 Rashid Khan 9-under 207 (66-72-69)
2 Rahul Bajaj 1-over 217 (75-75-67)
3 Abhishek Jha 2-over 218 (75-74-69),Gagan Verma 2-over 218 (73-75-70)
5 Abhijeet Singh Chadha 3-over 219 (76-69-74)
6 Arshdeep Tiwana 4-over 220 (72-71-77),Aditya Bhandarkar 4-over 220 (70-72-78)
8 Manav Das 5-over 221 (73-72-76),Akshay Butta 5-over 221 (74-69-78)
10 Pawan Kumar 6-over 222 (73-76-73),Suryavijay Singh 6-over 222 (71-78-73),Karan Vasudeva 6-over 222 (70-75-77)

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