The Hindu : Sport / Golf : Ashok Kumar emerges champion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 20, 2004

Sport

Sport - Golf

Ashok Kumar emerges champion

By Our Sports Reporter

CHENNAI, SEPT. 19. When Shiv Kapur, Digvijay Singh and Amritinder Singh opted out of The Hindu Open, it was widely believed that Mukesh Kumar would walk way with the title. At the end of the four-day The Hindu Open at the Cosmo-TNGF here on Saturday, it was Delhi pro Ashok Kumar who was holding the trophy.

The twenty-three-year-old Ashok blew the field away with a blazing 6-under-66 in the fourth and final round to win his fifth career title on the Amby Valley PGAI Tour.

A closing round of 66 and a four-round aggregate of 21-under saw Ashok walk away with the winner's cheque of Rs. 1,62, 000. Both his leader group partners Mukesh Kumar and Vijay Kumar carded 4-under each to finish second and third respectively. Mukesh turned in a card of 68 for a four round total of 14-under — second position for the second week in a row and a cheque of Rs. 1,12,000. Vijay got Rs. 63,000.

Starting the day at 15-under, Ashok did not waste any time to move into overdrive. He birdied the par-4 first and held a 25-footer for eagle on the par-5 second. He eagled the sixth too.

On the front-nine, Ashok stood on the 10th tee at 20-under for the tournament and an astonishing eight-shot lead over Mukesh Kumar. With a huge lead, the return journey became a formality and in fact the back-nine march turned out be a keen fight for the second place between Mukesh and Vijay.

"Finishing the Chennai leg with a win is a great feeling, even more so after breaking the course record in the second round. I would like to thank my sponsors, Mr. N. Srinivasan of India Cements, Mr. Amit Luthra without whom I would not be here today and the DLF Golf & Country Club for letting me use their wonderful facility to develop my game," said Ashok.

The scores (after 72 holes): Professionals: Ashok Kumar (Del) (72, 62, 67, 66) 267; Mukesh Kumar (Mhow) (72, 65, 69, 68) 274; Vijay Kumar (Luck) (69, 73, 67, 68) 277; Ranjit Singh (Chd) (67, 74, 68, 70) 279; Rahul Ganapathy (Ban) (69, 67, 73, 71) 280; Sandeep Syal (Che) (69, 71, 70, 71), Basad Ali (Kol) (67, 72, 70, 72) 281; Gast Ram (71, 73, 71, 69) 284; Yusuf Ali (70, 73, 71, 71), Sanjay Kumar (71, 71, 71, 72 ) 285. Amateurs: L. Selvadurai (78, 74, 77, 71) 300; V. Darshan (79, 82, 82, 80) 323; R. Prithviraj (80, 81, 79, 90) 330.

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