MUMBAI, January 9: Gagan Verma from Mumbai and Kolkata’s Sanjeev Mehra notched big wins on the first day of the 100th All-India (ABN Amro) Amateur Golf Championships, at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club course, here, on Tuesday.Verma, who plays for the hosts defeated Rohit Goyal 6 and 5 in the Matchplay event, which has 109 golfers in the fray, all vying for the pennant of India’s top amateur golfer. In the second round, Verma, will take on Chandigarh’s Jasjit Singh, who got the better of Rajiv Kumar with a 1 up margin. Also winning impressively was Mehra, who defeated Omar F Ali 7 & 6. Mehra will take on seeded player Mohd Shaaban Husin of Malaysia in the second round. Verma, a two-handicapper, began with a bogey to go one down, but soon picked up his game with a birdie on the 4th hole to go 2 up. He further increased his lead to four up with a birdie on the 8th and won the contest when he went six up on the 13th with another birdie. In a competition between two local lads, Sameet Sanghrajka of BPGC beat Akshay Khilachand of Willingdon Sports Club by a 2 up margin. Golfers from Mumbai had it good, with most of them going through to the second round.Lalit Goenka of BPGC beat Chandigarh’s Navtaj Singh 4 and 3, while Aditya Malkani beat Sri Lanka’s F J De Saran 2 and 1. Following were the results: Akhil Nayyar beat Ashok Andrew 3 & 2; Jasjeet Singh beat Rajeev Kumar 1 Up; Gagan Verma beat Rohit Goyal 6 & 5; Nohar Nath beat Arun Chadda 6 & 5;Sameet Sanghrajka beat Akshay Kilachand 2 & 1; Sachin Nigade beat Aman Bahl 2 & 1; Mageshwaran beat Sanjeev Mehra (Bangalore) 1 Up; Raj Singh beat Deepak Kumar 2 & 1; Sai Baba beat Sandeep Syal 4 & 2; Ashok Malik beat Kuldeep Singh Sandhu 4 & 3; Ankur Prakash beat Varun Sahay 5 & 4; B.G.L.Kumara (Sri Lanka) beat Shajadekhan 2 & 1; Dilip Thomas beat Moin Malak 2 & 1; Pritam Saikia beat Agnelo Castellino 2 Up; L Selvadurai beat Jassanjeet Dullet 19th Hole; Sanjeev Mehra (Kolkatta) beat Omar F Ali 7 & 6; Shivas Nath beat Rajeev N Datar 5 & 4; Rakesh Kumar beat Ratan Bali 19th Hole; Saif Zia beat A N Gopal 3 & 1; Laxman Singh beat Amit Ahuja 8 & 7; Keshav Mishra (Del) beat Vikrant Chopra 4 & 2; Mandaar Saddi beat Krisha Reddy 2 & 1; R B C Nair beat Mehtab Dere 4 & 3; Abbas Ali Chinoy beat Rahul Bali 6 & 5; Lalit Goenka beat Navtaj Singh 4 &3; Aditya Malkani bt F J De Saran (Sri Lanka) 2 & 1.
