Udayan Mane wins Golconda Masters championship

Udayan clinched honours in a four-way play-off to collect his sixth professional trophy outclassing Delhi’s Shamim Khan, Chandigarh’s Abhijit Singh Chadha and Sri Lankan N. Thangaraja.

Udayan Mane who won the Golconda Masters golf championship, receiving the trophy in Hyderabad on Sunday.

 

Udayan Mane of Hyderabad emerged champion in the fourth edition of the Telangana Tourism-promoted Golconda Masters golf championship at the HGA Course here on Sunday.

READ:  Mukesh leads in third round

The 27-year-old Udayan (68) clinched honours in a four-way play-off to collect his sixth professional trophy outclassing Delhi’s Shamim Khan (67), Chandigarh’s Abhijit Singh Chadha (67) and Sri Lankan N. Thangaraja (68) after the quartet had ended the regulation 72 holes with identical totals of 14-under-270.

Udayan Mane (67-66-69-68), lying one off the lead in tied second at the start of round four, was even-par for the day through seven holes after an early birdie and bogey.

But, Mane began his title charge with birdies on the eighth, 10th and 11th and staged a stunning recovery on the 10th as his approach from a different fairway landed within 20 feet of the pin for eagle. Then, he made two putts to pick up a birdie there. A long conversion followed on the next hole.

It looked as if Mane’s hopes of a title were dashed with his three-putt bogey on the 16th but he came back strongly with his best drive of the day on the 17th to set up another birdie for him. Then, his immaculate ball-striking on the playoff hole left him a three-foot birdie putt for victory. The trio of N. Thangaraja, Shamim Khan and Abhijit Singh Chadha had to make longer birdie conversions but missed out.

“At the start of the round I said three words to myself – focus, patience and determination. I did have some frustrating moments today but I handled them well. The exceptional approach on the 10th really got my round going and the terrific drive on the 17th helped me get back into the joint lead. These were some key moments,”a visibly delighted Mane said later.

Mane picked a winner’s purse of Rs. 4.5 lakhs and has now moved to third from 39th in the 2018 PGTI Order of Merit list.

Joint runners-up Shamim Khan (67-68-68-67), Abhijit Singh Chadha (70-65-68-67) and Thangaraja (65-69-68-68) were all in with a chance towards the latter stages of the day but missed their birdie putts.

Round three leader Mukesh Kumar of Mhow shot a final round of 74 to finish tied eighth at nine-under-275.