Gritty Chikka pips Gangjee for title

Golf TAKE Open Championship :

 It looked an exhausted S Chikkarangappa could be knocked off the perch by the seasoned Rahil Gangjee but the youngster found the extra resolve to grind out a tense victory in the TAKE Open Golf Championship here on Saturday.

Mentally and physically drained out after four successive weeks of intense golf, Chikkarangappa somehow managed to string together a fighting one-under 71 and stave off the charging Gangjee (68) by one stroke at the Karnataka Golf Association.

Chikkarangappa, followed by a decent crowd for the better part of the round, eventually totalled 275 to record his 10th professional victory and rise to the top of the PGTI money list after pocketing a cool Rs 15 lakh.

Leading by three shots overnight, it seemed like the 23-year-old Chikkarangappa would gallop away with the title when he birdied the opening hole itself. A player who thrives playing at home -- both Eagleton Golf Resort and KGA -- Chikkarangappa, on a brilliant run of form over the last two months, looked headed for a routine win.

However, things started to change from the very next hole as his ‘A’ game began to desert him. While he managed to keep his ball striking decent, he just couldn’t get the line or speed right on the greens -- his strength. Balls either kept stopping short of the cup or rolled some distance, leaving him extremely worried.

Despite the wobbles, Chikkarangappa breathed easy as his leadergroup partners Sujjan Singh and Shubhankar Sharma too struggled with their respective games. Following a bogey on the fourth and a monstrous 50-foot birdie on the seventh, Chikkarangappa took the turn with a three-shot cushion and things seemingly in control.

Playing in the group ahead, the 38-year-old Gangjee, who has shifted base to Bengaluru from Kolkata, however was determined to spoil Chikkarangappa’s home party. He birdied the 14th and 15th holes and with Chikkarangappa dropping a bogey on the 14th, the scores were level at 13-under.

On a brilliant run, Gangjee sadly stumbled for the first time on the 17th, handing over the initiative back to his rival. He found the left fairway bunker with his tee shot and then chipped hard with his third shot before two-putting for a bogey.

Aware that he was back on top, Chikkarangappa, trying hard to focus, put himself in a spot on the 17th too after finding the left greenside rough. Taking his time, he chipped and putted for a good par to keep himself ahead.

With Gangjee failing to muster a birdie on the 18th, Chikkarangappa decided to keep things simple and converted an under-pressure four-feet par-putt to lay his hands on the title.

“I just wasn’t able to stay tuned in today. I had a bad stretch from the 12th to the 14th where I was not reading the lines well. I then had a nervous last few holes as Rahil made a charge. I got lucky when he bogeyed the 17th,” said Chikkarangappa.

Leading scores (after 72 holes, ‘A’ denotes amateur): 275: S Chikkarangappa (69, 67, 68, 71); 276: Rahil Gangjee (68, 70, 70, 68); 278: Jyoti Randhawa (69, 70, 72, 67), Anura Rohana (72, 66, 71, 69), Shubhankar Sharma (68, 69, 70, 71); 280: Jaibir Singh (A, 69, 69, 71, 71), Chiragh Kumar (70, 69, 69, 72); 281: M Dharma (71, 71, 72, 67), Shankar Das (70, 73, 69, 69).