Sandhu clinches titles at Golconda Masters

Chandigarh's Ajeetesh Sandhu capped a memorable week by firing a sizzling six-under 65 in the final round to clinch the Golconda Masters golf tournament at the Hyderabad Golf Club (HGC) here today.
Sandhu scripted a superb start to finish victory as he totalled 23-under 261 to register a four strokes win over Gurgaon's Shubhankar Sharma, the winner at last week's PGTI event, who ended runner-up at 19-under-265 after a final round of three-under-68 at the Rs. 40 lakh event.
On the first seven holes today, Sandhu and Sharma (66-66-65-68), picked up two birdies each with the former hanging on to his slender one-shot lead. Kolkata's Feroz Ali Mollah, the other contender at the start of the day, dropped out of the race, courtesy a bogey on the fourth.

The match swung decisively in Sandhu's favour as he birdied the eighth and 11th while Shubhankar conceded a disastrous double-bogey on the 10th where he lost his ball after pushing his drive to the right.
Sandhu's five-shot lead after the 12th was cut down to three after he had a minor blip with a bogey on 13 even as Sharma gained a shot on 14. However, there was no threat for the leader thereafter and he went on to complete a comfortable win, his first in over three years, with birdies on the last two holes.
An ecstatic Sandhu said, "I'm glad to finally get over the line after such a long time. It is very satisfying to record a wire-to-wire win. It's been a special week as I also registered my best tournament score and my best single round score of nine-under in the first round. I would like to thank my friend and fellow professional Muniyappa who lend me his putter for the week. The putter worked for me.

"As they say winning is a habit, the more you win, the more you get used to it. So now it's about taking the momentum forward into the forthcoming events including the big week at the Indian Open," added Sandhu, who took home the winner's cheque worth Rs. 6 lakh to climb from 14th to third in the 2016 Rolex Ranking as his earnings for the season so far increased to Rs. 7,45,720.

Sharma's runner-up finish moved him up from fourth to second spot in the money list with season's earnings of Rs. 8,50,000. Feroz Ali, who finished tied seventh, continues to be the leader with total earnings of Rs. 10,54,260.

Mhow's Mukesh Kumar (67) claimed third place at 15-under-269, while Bengaluru's Khalin Joshi was a further shot back in fourth. Chandigarh's Harendra Gupta, C Muniyappa (65) of Bengaluru were tied for fifth at 13-under-271.
Gurgaon's Manu Gandas shared the seventh spot with Feroz Ali at 12-under-272. Shamim Khan (65) secured ninth place at 11-under-273.