Noida’s Sukhman Singh wins the 124th All India Amateur at Tolly

Sukhman Singh of Noida (left) holds aloft his All India Amateur Championship trophy along with runner-up Harman Sachdeva of Haryana at the Tollygunge Club in Kolkata on Sunday. Image courtesy of IGU.

By Rahul Banerji

Noida golfer Sukhman Singh emerged as the dominant winner of the 124th Amateur Golf Championship of India at the Tollygunge Club in Kolkata on Sunday.

The 19-year-old defeated Harman Sachdeva by a huge margin of seven with seven holes remaining to lift the world’s longest-running amateur match play crown, the Indian Golf Union said.

It was a comprehensive performance from the teenager who had sealed the issue with the 27th hole of the 36-hole match play final against his rival from Haryana.

Earlier this month, Delhi’s Lavanya Gupta won the All India Ladies and Junior Girls Championship ahead of Haryana’s Ceerat Kang at the Rambagh Golf Club in Jaipur.

While Lavanya recorded scores of 74, 67, 77 and 70 for a total of 8 over 288, Ceerat (72-72-73-73) finished two strokes behind.

Chandigarh’s Guntas Kaur Sandhu (70-73-77-73) topped the A and B categories of the IGU-run event, while Rajasthan’s Ojaswini Saraswat (74-77-73) won the C category.

Lavanya also received the Billoo Sethi Trophy for the best stroke play total of 36 holes.

Play all-round

With a hot putter and an impressive long game, Sukhman attacked the flags from the start of the final.

He was all square until the sixth hole before going 4 up after 12 holes and staying ahead twice after the first 18 holes.

Sukhman’s father Simarjeet Singh is a former India no. 1 amateur and three-time winner of the Sri Lankan Amateur and IGU Mid-Amateur champion.

Sachdeva came back in the second 18 to cut the Noida golfer’s lead to three until the 23rd hole. Sukhman was at his dominant best, sinking birdie after birdie to move up 6 on the 25th hole.

When he went up 7 after 29, the tournament director declared him the winner of the event, as the lead over Sachdeva had become unassailable.

“It still feels like a dream, you have to pinch me, even though in reality I won,” Sukhman said later.

Proud moment

“I’ve worked all my life to get there, but to finally achieve it is amazing. It’s a proud moment for me and my family.

“My father is the one who kept pushing me and believing in me when I didn’t, so it’s a time for me and my family to rejoice,” the champion added.

On his strategy going into the final round, Sukhman said: “I always knew that this was not an 18-hole match and that I have to hold on for these 36 holes.

“So even if I lose a few holes, I still had a lot of holes to make a comeback. Moreover, I didn’t want Harman in the final because he is a tough competitor.

“I kept attacking to get ahead and the tactics paid off in the end. My driving and putting were both good and that helped.”

Before the performance in Kolkata, Sukhman won the IGU Rajasthan Amateur and finished second at the Andhra Pradesh Amateur event. He also finished fourth at the South African Amateur Strokeplay event earlier this year.

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