Varun Parikh long wait for his maiden success on the PGTI Tour ended with a stupendous five-stroke victory margin in one of the richest tournaments on the circuit.
Besides the Rs. 15 lakh winner’s share out of Rs. 1 crore prize-money, the 24-year-old from Ahmedabad, received the winner’s jacket from the former captain of the Indian cricket team, M. S. Dhoni.
It all happened in the inaugural Kapil Dev - Grant Thornton Invitational golf tournament at the DLF Golf and Country Club here. Starting the day in joint lead with Kartik Sharma, Parikh carded a second straight five-under 67 for a winning tally of 11-under 277.
After two bogeys and birdie on the first three holes, :Parikh steadied his play and picked up six birdies on the remaining holes. At least four long putts, including a monstrous 70-footer on the 11th hole, stood out in his near-flawless short game.
Manu Gandas made the most of playing on his home course. He shot a final-round 69 to aggregate 6-under 282 and finished runner-up, worth Rs. 10 lakh.
However, for the second successive day, Kartik could not get his act right. He struggled for a poor 74 on his home course and took the third spot, two strokes behind Manu. Kartik collected Rs. 5,99,800.
Final scores (top-10):
277 - Varun Parikh (73, 70, 67, 67), 282 - Manu Gandas (74, 66, 73, 69); 284 - Kartik Sharma (71, 67, 72, 74); 287 - Om Prakash Chouhan (70, 72, 74, 71), Divyanshu Bajaj (71, 72, 73, 71); 288 - Manav Jaini (73, 73, 72, 70), Himmat Rai (71, 70,73, 74); 289 - Deepinder Kullar (70, 74, 72, 73), Sachin Baisoya (72, 68, 74, 75) and Syed Saqib Ahmed (74, 67, 71, 77).
