The Hindu : Mamat makes it

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 29, 2004

Sport

Sport - Golf

Mamat makes it

By Rakesh Rao

Mardan Mamat of Singapore who won the Indian Open golf tournament. - Photo: Sandeep Saxena

NEW DELHI, MARCH 28. In a dream finish, a 25-foot birdie putt ended Mardan Mamat's 10-year wait for his first professional title. The 36-year-old from Singapore reserved his best for the final day of the $300,000 Royal Challenge Indian Open golf tournament to come up with a stunning card of seven-under 65 and walk away with the $50,000 winner's cheque at the Delhi Golf Club course here on Sunday.

In what turned out to be a two-horse race, Mamat began the day three strokes behind leader Pablo Del Olmo and overtook him after the Mexican double-bogeyed the par-4 fourth hole. Thereafter, Mamat enlarged his lead and eventually made it into a no-contest. He ended the day the way he started it _ with two successive birdies _ to end up five strokes clear of Pablo.

Mamat's winning tally of 18-under 270 matched the record set by Mike Cunning last year. Pablo, who has struggled to make `cuts' this year, took $33,090 for his 275. Three strokes behind were Korea's Mo Joong-Kyung and first-day leader Keith Horne. The duo gained $16,537 each.

Mukesh Kumar's 279 gave him a shared fifth spot worth $11,037 _ his biggest reward on the Asian Tour. Mukesh's previous best was a tied 10th place in the 2003 Hero Honda Masters here. Firoz Ali was the second best Indian, in the seventh spot, with 280 and earned $8,825.

After receiving the biggest pay cheque of his career, Mamat said he would keep it for his children. But what Mamat achieved today was no child's play. Seven birdies in a bogey-free card on the final day came as a result of Mamat taking one shot at a time, and not thinking of winning.

"It feels great to win specially after such a long wait,'' said Mamat and pointed out, "this course suits my style since I am not a big hitter. I keep the ball in the fairways and then take it from there.

Talking about the day's play, Mamat said, "the birdies on the first two holes gave me the confidence to go all the way. I am quite happy with the way I played today.''

Of course Mamat was pleased with his play but did not forget to thank a spectator, a cameraman and above all, his caddie Ali Jaan, brother of twice champion Ali Sher, for their contributions. On the 11th hole, Mamat's tee shot struck a spectator and stayed on the fairway. Again when his second shot threatened to go over the green, the ball hit a misplaced iron rod on the ground and remained in on the fringe of the green. The rod, that holds the rope to keep the spectators at a distance, was on the ground because of a cameramanwho forgot to put it up once his job was over.

"My caddie told me all the right things and that helped a lot,'' was how Mamat acknowledged Ali Jaan, who caddies for Arjun Atwal.

Pablo, who blew up a three-stroke lead to end up second best by a long shot, praised Mamat's flawless game today but blamed his own lack of experience for the round of 73.

"You see, I've never been in the lead going into the final day. I started ahead of myself and couldn't keep up with Mamat, I missed too many putts today,'' said Pablo.

Effectively, it all changed early in the day when Pablo double-bogeyed the fourth hole after hitting his 3-iron tee-shot to the right. He followed it with a 9-iron that took the ball into the bunker. He came out of it and three-putted. Thereafter, three birdies and two bogeys on the remaining holes did not help his title prospects.

Harinder Gupta, the lone amateur was tied 42nd with a score of 293, same as the dethroned champion Mike Cunning.

The scores:

Final round: Mardan Mamat (Sin) (68, 67, 70, 65) 270; Pablo Del Olmo (Mex) (69, 66, 67, 73) 275; Mo Joong-Kyung (Kor) (68, 70, 70, 70) and Keith Horne (RSA) (63, 72, 70, 73) 278; Mukesh Kumar (67, 71, 71,70) and Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) (66, 69, 71, 73) 279; Firoz Ali (72, 70, 69, 69) 280; Rick Gibson (Can) (70, 71, 73, 67) 281; Lee Sung-Man (Kor) (72, 73, 70, 67) and Gary Rusnak (US) (68, 69, 71, 74) 282; Clay Devers (US) (67, 69, 73, 74) 283; Adam Fraser (Aus) (74, 65, 74, 71) 284; Vijay Kumar (71, 68, 75, 71), Amritinder Singh (68, 72, 74, 71), Kim Felton (Aus) (71, 73, 69, 73), Digvijay Singh (73, 72, 67, 74) and Rafiq Ali (69, 71, 72, 74) 286.

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