Syal bags crown with day’s best

Ashok Kumar was a surprise runner-up. The Delhi lad too had a card of 70 today to total 293, three strokes ahead of Kapur.

Kapur who had been pretty consistent for the last two days with one over par 71 rounds, fumbled on the day when it mattered the most. He went five over par today to finish with a total of 296.

Having bridged the gap between him and Syal down to two strokes, Kapur sure looked a better bet to finish on top. He seemed to have developed a tendency to drop more shots on the front nine. But a better back nine came to his rescue throughout the tournament.

Ironically, today it was other way round. Kapur dropped shots on the fourth andnine to go two over after front nine, two better than yesterday. While on Day Three he had a bogey free back nine studded with three birdies today he dropped shots on the 11th, 13th and the par-five 16th where he had fired a birdie yesterday.

Unlike Kapur, Syal started badly. He began his day with bogeys on the first three holes and the title looked further distant as he ended the first half with another bogey on the ninth.

But Syal, who led the tournament for the last three days turned tables on the back nine. He fired birdies on the 11th, 12th, 16th and 17th to place his hands on the trophy.

Second-placed Ashok also did well to relegate Kapur behind. The Delhi caddie started with a birdie before dropping shots on second, fifth and a double bogey on the par-seventh. The back nine, however, was bogey free with birdies on the 12th, 16th and 18th.

Mumbai’s Amit Nigam fared better today with a card of 77. But the total of 310 could only get him the sixth position.

Calcutta’s Ranjit Singh emergedchampion in the 13-14 age group category. Ranjit tallied 323, two strokes ahead of MD Wazir of Delhi.

FINAL SCORES

15-17 – 289: Sandeep Syal (68+76+75+70); 293: Ashok Kumar (75+75+73+70); 296: Shiv Kapur (79+71+71+75); 305: Sandy Lehal (76+78+78+73); 308: Vinod Kumar (79+77+75+77); 310: Amit Nigam (76+77+80+77), Suleman Ali (78+77+81+74); 311: Arjun Singh (83+81+75+72); 313: Dayal Singh (79+81+77+76); 314: Sunder Singh (75+81+81+77)

13-14 – 323: Ranjit Singh (78+78+84+84); 325: MD Wazir (77+85+84+79), Lakhan Singh (83+78+79+85); 331: Srikant Nagraj (84+82+84+81); 336: Arjunveer Chugh (88+89+82+77); 341: Vikram Nandrajog (82+86+89+84); 342: Joseph Chakola (89+88+84+81), Sarvar Hussain (91+84+81+86)

11-12 – 336: Jaskreet Dullet (86+87+81+82), Aditya Singh (87+81+84+84); 349: Roger Hilton (90+90+82+87); 355: Dheeraj Sareen (88+90+89+88).