Ali fires best score

MUMBAI, FEBRAURY 25: Twice Indian Open champion Ali Sher warmed up for the 2nd Aravalli Open championship in style when he returned with the best card amongst all the professionals in the Alvaro de Castilla memorial Pro-Am event held at the 5,887-yards, par-72 Aravalli golf course, here today.

The Delhi golfer fired six-under 66 42 points to win the best pro score prize of Rs 5,000. This was just one stroke adrift of the course record seven-under scored by Vijay Kumar in the first round of the inaugural edition last year. It was a sweet day for Ali Sher, as he was also a part of the winning team. Combining with Nareshwar Dayal, Ratan Sehgal and Prakash Shah, Ali Sher tallied 125 points to win an additional cash prize of Rs 7,000. Two points behind the winners was the high-profile team of defending champion Gaurav Ghei, featuring former skipper of the Indian cricket team, Kapil Dev, SK Misra, chairman, Haryana Tourism Publicity Board, and Jim Flavin, Irish ambassador to India. Ghei, who returned with atwo-under 70 card, received Rs 5,000 for his part in the win.

The second runner-up spot went to local professional Rohtas Singh8217;s team, comprising Pradeep Jain, Ranjan Rajendran and Ashwan Kapoor. They returned to the clubhouse tallying 114 points. Rohtas8217; familiarity with the course showed in his five-under 67 round, which was second only to Ali Sher8217;s another professional to score five-under was Kanpur8217;s Shiv Prakash.

Ali Sher was in devastating form in the longer back nine as he completed his return journey four-under after going out two-under. He scored a hat-trick of birdies from 11th onwards, and finished with two more on the last two holes.