GREATER NOIDA: For the second time in seven days, Jyoti Randhawa kept his tryst with the country's sporting history.

Last Monday, Randhawa won the richest-ever Indian Open and collected a cheque of $63,400 that took his season earnings to $188,485.

On Sunday, the 34-year old added the Rs.70-lakh BILT Open title and became the recipient of the winner's cheque of Rs.11.34 lakhs, the biggest in any domestic individual sport offered in the country.

Randhawa won by a three-stroke margin over Singapore's Lam Chih Bing after his final-round 69 completed the winning tally of 15-under 273 at the Jaypee Greens Course here.

"The pin-positions today were very testing, much like the ones we get in the U.S. and that's why you did not see many low scores today," said the champion and maintained that he "remained in the present and did not think too far ahead of the job on hand."

Randhawa said that he would consider playing in more than two events, that he was committed to play, on the new Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) as "this event was organised as well as any Asian Tour event."

Fine form

Randhawa started the round a shot ahead of Lam Chih Bing and never trailed during the day. Lam Chih Bing, who dropped a shot on the third hole, caught up with Randhwa on the sixth after draining a 35-foot birdie before the Indian bogeyed.

A birdie from Randhawa on the seventh put him ahead again, but the joy was short-lived as a bogey on the eighth hole brought the players on level terms.

At the turn, they were locked at 12-under before Randhawa made his move. On the par-4 10th, Randhawa hit a driver and lob-wedge to about six feet for a much-needed birdie. Randhawa stayed ahead after the players birdied the par-5 12th hole.

The pressure told on Lam Chih Bing as he bogeyed the 13th to give Randhawa a two-stroke cushion. Although the Singapore pro managed to pick up a shot on the 15th, the bogey on the 17th almost decided the issue. Randhawa signed off in style with a 10-foot birdie on the final hole to enlarge his victory margin.

Lam Chih Bing, who admitted to having spoilt his chances with two bad shots on the back nine and following birdies with bogeys, received the dollar-equivalent of Rs.7.84 lakhs.

Defensive Chowrasia

Unlike Randhawa who was rewarded for stroking his putts well, S.S.P. Chowrasia's ultra defensive approach left him contented with the third place. Chowrasia who was expected to attack the pins a lot more in order to catch up with Randhawa, disappointed repeated by leaving his putts consistently short on the front-nine. Chowrasia's 278 was worth Rs.4.41 lakhs, while Harmeet Kahlon, who also shot a 71 for a 280, took home Rs.3.57 lakhs.

The scores: Jyoti Randhawa (66, 70, 68, 69) 273; Lam Chih Bing (Sin) (70, 68, 67, 71) 276; S.S.P. Chowrasia (70, 65, 72, 71) 278; Harmeet Kahlon (66, 72, 71, 71) 280; Digvijay Singh (70, 71, 69, 71), Rahul Ganapathy (66, 69, 72, 74) and Shiv Kapur (75, 66, 72, 68) 281; Chirag Kumar (A) (69, 66, 75, 71), Amandeep Johl (70, 68, 73, 71), Uttam Singh Mundy (68, 74, 71, 69) and Himmat Singh Rai (A) (68, 69, 74, 71) 282; Rafael Ponce (Ecu) (69, 71, 70, 73) 283; Arjun Singh (73, 71, 72, 68) and Karanjit Singh (72, 73, 70, 69) 284; C. Muniyappa (67, 75, 74, 69), Harinder Gupta (69, 71, 72, 73) and Gagan Verma (A) (67, 74, 72, 72) 285; Gaurav Ghei (75, 72, 72, 67) and Vivek Bhandari (72, 70, 74, 70) 286; Gurbaaz Mann (67, 72, 73, 75) 287; Amardip Malik (73, 68, 70, 77) and Rahil Gangjee (77, 70, 71,70) 288.

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