Moin, Arshdeep in title clash

On a day which saw the players fight tooth and nail over each hole, Moin Malak and Arshdeep Tiwana prevailed in their respective semi-final matches to set up a title clash at the Eastern India Amateur being played at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club RCGC.

On a day which saw the players fight tooth and nail over each hole, Moin Malak and Arshdeep Tiwana prevailed in their respective semi-final matches to set up a title clash at the Eastern India Amateur being played at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club RCGC.

In the first match, Moin won against Pawan Kumar one up, while the other semi-final went into the third playoff hole, after which Arshdeep finally emerged as the winner against Karan Vasudeva. The two players were all square after regulation play and the tie went into the 21st hole before Arshdeep could afford a smile on his face.

Arshdeep has been on a fine run in this tournament, beating higher ranked players in all his matches, including the leader on the Order of merit list, Gagan Verma, in the quarter-finals. Playing against the talented Karan Vasudeva, Arshdeep was off to a bad start and was two down after just two holes. He clawed his way back into the match and took the lead for the first time on the 11th hole. On the 16th, Karan sunk a birdie putt to make it all square and it stayed at that after the completion of 18 holes. On the 19th and the 20th, Karan had a good chance to close out the tie but missed out on his birdie putts before finally conceding the tie with a bogey on the 21st. Arshdeep has been on a golden run in this tournament and said 8220;hopefully I can cap it off with a win in the final.8221;

Moin, who is yet to register a win on the Amateur Tour, came back strongly on the back nine to win. In the match against Pawan Kumar, who earlier in the tournament defeated the top seed Akshay Butta, both players failed to control the proceedings and the lead oscillated between the two players.

Heading to the 16th hole, Moin was one down and needed to win the hole to have a real chance at upstaging Pawan. Faced with a 20-foot putt on the 16th green, Moin calmly drained the birdie putt to make the match all-square once again. Buoyed by the birdie, Moin found the middle of the fairway on the final hole and was on the green safely in two while Pawan struggled off the tee. Pawan bogeyed the hole, allowing Moin to go one up and win the match.

Later Moin said: 8220;I was not really happy with how I played because I only managed two birdies in the entire round. I think the turning point was the 16th hole.