Shaurya Singh upsets Harmeet Kahlon in SRF Matchplay

The Matchplay format of the SRF All India Professional Golf Championship presented its challenge in the very first round of the event as it witnessed a number of exciting encounters including the biggest upset of the day when Shaurya Singh registered a one-up win against fourth seed Harmeet Kahlon at the Delhi Golf Club here on Tuesday.

While most of the top contenders with the likes of Ashok Kumar, Digvijay Singh, Gaganjeet Bhullar and Lam Chih Bing eased past to the second round. It was also a day of playoff since as many as eight matches of round one were decided through playoffs.

Shaurya won the first, third, fifth, sixth, eighth and 11th holes but lost out to Harmeet on the ninth, 10th, 12th, 15th and 17th. Shaurya finally registered a well-deserved win when Harmeet missed a four feet putt on the 18th that could have taken the match to a playoff.

“It was a great day for me. I was hitting well and also putted well on the front nine. Harmeet seemed to be catching up with me on the back nine but I hung in there and finally came through. I was also playing with an injured left shoulder so the win is that much more special for me,” said elated Shaurya.

Defending champion and top seed Ashok Kumar came back from being 3 down against Kolkata’s Ranjit Singh to finally win 1 up. Ranjit won the first, third and fifth holes but Ashok bounced back by winning the eighth, 13th, 15th and 16th holes.

“It was a close match and Ranjit gave me a fight till the end. I’m delighted with my win as I did not start well but then picked up momentum on the back nine,” said Ashok after his victory.

Tournament’s second seed Digvijay Singh secured a berth in the round of 32 with a 2 up triumph against Jaideep Patwardhan. Third seed Gaganjeet Bhullar also made it to the next round as he won 3 & 2 against Gast Ram.

Fifth seed Lam Chih Bing of Singapore prevailed over Dinesh Kumar 4 & 3. Lam Chih Bing bagged the fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, 12th and 14th holes and lost the fourth and 13th.

Rahul Ganapathy cruised to a 4 & 3 victory over Bhoop Singh. Ganapathy advanced as a result of wins on the third, ninth, 12th and 15th. Mukesh Kumar secured a birth in the second round after he defeated M Dharma 6 & 5.

Sixth seed C Muniyappa and seventh seed Shamim Khan also booked their places in the second round. While C Muniyappa won 4 & 3 against Sheeraz Kalra, Shamim Khan defeated Sachin Nigade 2 & 1.

Bangalore’s R Srinivas defeated Sanjay Kumar on the second playoff hole (20th hole) in a very close encounter. In the other playoffs of the day, Uttam Singh Mundy beat Deepinder Singh Kullar (19th hole), Vivek Bhandari beat Rohit Chaudhary (19th hole), Himmat Singh Rai beat Mohd Islam (20th hole) Gurbaaz Mann beat Indrajit Bhalotia (19th hole) and Ali Sher beat Gurki Shergill (19th hole).

After the end of round one a total of thirty-two professionals will be involved in 16 matches in the second round on Wednesday.