Historical win for India

Bangalore's Aditi Ashok clinches individual title

India recorded its first ever victory in the Asia Pacific Junior Golf Championship bagging both the boys’ and girls’ team honours in the prestigious event that concluded at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club here on Sunday.

Aditi Ashok won the individual title in the girls’ category after prevailing in a thrilling play-off with the Min-Jou Chen of Chinese Taipei.

Viraj Madappa and Manu Gandas led India ‘A’ to the team championship while Aditi and Ridhima Dilawari combined to win laurels for the India ‘B'’ team in the girls division.
Aditi shot a final round score of one-over 73 to finish regulation play at 217, level with Chen (72). Aditi then kept her cool in the play-off to emerge victorious.

India had a chance to capture all the titles but with Thailand’s Suradit Yongcharoenchai giving nothing away in the boys’ individual championship, all they had to be content with as a tied second-place finish by Gandas and Madappa. Suradit, who shot 71 in the final round, signed off at 287, six shots ahead of Gandas and Madappa.

Leading scores: Team: Boys: 586: India ‘A’ (Manu Gandas, Viraj Madappa); 594: Thailand ‘B’ (Ekthumrong  Luanganuruk, Suradit  Yongcharoenchai); 595: Chinese Taipei ‘A’ (Sung I Yu, Chun An Yu). Girls: 442: India ‘B’ (Aditi Ashok, Ridhima Dilawari); 446: Chinese Taipei A’ (Yu-Hsin Chang, Min-Jou Chen); 452: Chinese Taipei ‘B’ (Hsin-En Tsai, Cih-Hui Chen).

Individual (Indians unless mentioned): Boys: 287: Suradit  Yongcharoenchai (Tha, 74, 70, 72, 71); 293: Manu Gandas (73, 75, 75, 70), Viraj Madappa (73, 73, 73, 74); 294: Chun  An Yu (Tai, 76, 74, 76, 68); 295: Feroz Singh Garewal (77, 70, 73).

Girls: 217: Aditi Ashok (75, 69, 73), Min-Jou Chen (Tai, 72, 73, 72); 218: Gurbani Singh (73, 72, 73); 222: Cih-Hui Chen (Tai, 76, 70, 76); 224: Pinyada  Kuvanun (79, 74, 71).
Kapur disappoints

India’s Shiv Kapur collapsed in the final round and signed a disappointing card of three-over 73 to finish tied 12th after being in a position of contention at the $1.3 million Hong Kong Open on Sunday.

Kapur, lying tied second at nine-under after three rounds, finished at six-under 274 and picked up $19,695 as his winnings. Also tied at 12th was Anirban Lahiri (69).
Up at the top, Spanish veteran star Miguel Angel Jimenez held off Thailand’s Prom Meesawat and Stuart Manley of Wales in the first-hole of a sudden-death play-off.

Almost all the Indians had a disappointing final day. Jyoti Randhawa (72) finished tied 30th at 277 while Himmat Rai (73) ended tied 57th at even par 280. Sujjan Singh (70) and SSP Chowrasia (75) were tied 65th at two-over 282.