Madappa tops with another late surge

It appears as if Viraj Madappa likes to leave it too late.

For the second week in a row, the Kolkata teenager produced his best for the last, registering a second straight come-from-behind win in the IGU-Yes Bank Karnataka Juniors Golf Championship here on Friday.

The 16-year-old, struggling to find his range over the last three days despite coming into the event on the back of a brilliant victory last week, found it at the most opportune time, carding a superb three-under 69 to wrap up a one-shot victory after totalling 286 at the Eagleton Golf Resort.

Joint overnight leader Arjun Prasad shot a respectable 287 to sign off second while his playing partner Karthikey Vashist tumbled down to third at 288 after carding 73.

Trailing by two shots at the start of the day, Viraj made a cautious beginning as Arjun and Karthikey dished out some erratic stuff. Despite finding a lone birdie on the par-3 fifth, Viraj cut the lead down to just one shot at the turn. He suffered a temporary snag with the bogey on the 11th before making amends with birdies on the 12th and 13th.

A bogey by Arjun on the 16th left both him and Viraj tied for the lead as the event headed for a thrilling climax. Viraj then completed his comeback job, nailing a birdie on the closing hole to seal victory.

Leading scores (after 72 holes): Category A&B: 286: Viraj Madappa (73, 71, 73, 69); 287: Arjun Prasad (69, 75, 71, 72); 288: Karthikey Vashist (74, 70, 71, 73); 291: Karthik Sharma (74, 76, 68, 73);  292: Aniruddh Kedlaya (72, 71, 77, 72); 293: Shubham Narain (72, 75, 73, 73).

Category B: 291: Karthik Sharma; 301: Kshitu Naveed Kaul (79, 76, 71, 75); 304: Pratheek Nagaprasad (81, 76, 75, 72), Ranveer Grewal (78, 73, 75, 78).