Top professional golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar had to dig deep into his nearly two decades experience to ward of a strong challenge from younger golfers to win the first tournament of the inaugural new and faster format no-cut all-players-get-paid Indian Golf Premier League (IGPL) Tour on home turf at the 18-hole Chandigarh Golf Club course on Friday.
An early eagle (2-under par for a particular hole) and a late birdie (1-under par) saw Bhullar card a 2-under 70 (par 72) in the final round of the three-round tournament to become the first IGPL Invitational champion.
Winner of 11 Asian Tour titles, the most by an Indian, the pro had three great rounds of 70-71-70 for a 5-under total, which was remarkable considering that the course was challenging and difficult to score on despite the host club having nursed it to good shape after weeks of heavy to very heavy rains.
He finished two shots clear of second placed M Dharma, the man who has won on many tours. Dharma shot 70-75-68. In the final round he played a remarkable 5-under on the back nine holes, but his two bogeys on the front nine cost him dearly.
Bhullar carried home a cheque of Rs 22.50 lakhs from the whopping overall prize purse of Rs 1.5 crores. Dharma got richer by Rs 15 lakhs.
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The sole leader of the first round and tied first with Bhullar at the end of the second round, Shaurya Binu (69-72-73) finished tied third with south paws Veer Ganapathy (72-72-70), son of former pro and now coach Rahul Ganapathy, and Kartik Sharma (73-73-68). For their feat, they earned a purse of Rs 8.7 lakh each.
Another young player, Neil Jolly and the experienced Kapil Kumar were tied sixth at 1-under for the week as only seven players returned under par over the three rounds. Three players, Dharma, Kartik and Sunhit Bishnoi (75-73-68 for 8th place) produced 4-under 68 rounds.
Kartik Singh, who at various stages this week indicated that he could be the next big star, finally finished tied ninth alongside Aman Raj, Sanju Kumar, Sachin Baisoya, Harendra Gupta and Pukhraj Singh Gill.
Jahanvi Bakshi, making a comeback after two years of injuries, was the top woman finisher, 19th overall in a 54-strong mixed field, a first for any tour, with rounds of 73-71-75. The field had 38 men pros, 10 women pros and six amateurs.
Apparently delighted with the outcome of the first tournament of the inaugural IGPL Tour, its CEO Uttam Singh Mundy commented: “We can be assured that there is a good crop of young stars emerging. I was very happy to see the likes of Veer Ganapathy, Kartik Singh, Krish Chawla, Raghav Chugh and others rise to the occasion. It became even more creditable as Veer, Kartik and Raghav took a big step in their lives by turning pro this week and they showed that they belonged among the professionals.”
All praise for the new format IGPL, Bhullar remarked: “It marks the beginning of a new chapter in Indian golf, and I am proud to be part of it. The Tour has been created with a lot of care and brings together women pros, young pros and amateurs onto the same platform as the top pros. This will help them and hopefully I can inspire some of these youngsters, just like Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa and Arjun Atwal and other seniors inspired me.”
He however observed that “Right now, we have very few Indians on Asian Tour with a Tour card. There was a time when we had more than a dozen Indians and a lot of wins came India’s way. I hope the new stars like Veer Ganapathy, Kartik Singh, Krish Chawla and even Shaurya Binu, and others we saw this week will soon get onto the Asian Tour. It’s always great to win, that’s what we pros play for, but to get these young ones to fly the Indian flag high is my goal and a big motivation.”
The next tournament of the 11-event IGPL Tour will be held at the Jaypee Greens, Greater Noida, from September 17 to 19.
