Ajeetesh Sandhu fired a career-best five-under 67 but failed to dislodge Gaganjeet Bhullar from the pedestal as the latter registered a two-stroke win in the senior category of the Nokia N.GAGE QD Southern India Junior/Sub-Junior golf event, played at the par-72 Eagleton Golf Resort.
Bhullar's final round one-over 73 handed him a tournament tally of five-under 283.
The event was the second leg of the Nokia N.GAGE QD All-India Junior Golf Tour.
Sandhu, who aggregated three-under 285, was followed four strokes behind by Aditya Singh, at 289.
In category 'B' (age 13-14 years), Amanjyot Singh cruised to a six-stroke win over Fatehbir Dhaliwal at 306.
Meanwhile, Rommel Majumdar went on to record his fifth win in as many events in Bangalore and the third straight one at Eagleton Golf Resort when he essayed an eight-stroke win at 335 in category 'C'(age 11-12 yrs).
Golfing prodigy Viraat Badhwar, who turns nine on Saturday, decimated the opposition with a 30-stroke victory in category 'D' (10 years and below).
Virat's three round tournament aggregate stood at 240. The prizes were jointly given away by Sheel Tankha, Regional Retail Marketing Manager, Nokia India Pvt. Ltd., and Chetan Meda of Eagleton Golf Resort.
Bhullar was given a hard time today but such is his mental strength that he failed to even acknowledge it. The RCF Kapurthala golfer went into his final round with an eight-stroke cushion. By the time he finished that gap
was reduced to a mere two strokes. Credit for this should go to 15-year-old Ajeetesh Sandhu, who fired a remarkable round of 67, the best card of the week.
Bhullar, who was playing with Sandhu, however didn't feel the pressure one bit.
"I was very confident about my game all through. The only worry was my putting which was a shade off today but overall, I had no doubts that I would win," he stated.
The winner's round was a shade shaky to begin with, courtesy dropped shots on the third and seventh. A birdie on the eighth was welcome relief.
With Sandhu playing his front nine to par, Bhullar still enjoyed a seven-stroke lead on the tenth tee. Then Sandhu caught fire. The Chandigarh Golf Club product let loose a string of birdies on the 11th, 13th, 15th, 16th and 17th. Bhullar, with a birdies on the 13th and 16th, and bogeys, on the 15th and 18th, however, managed to scrape through unscathed.
"On the 16th, Gaganjeet was four strokes ahead of me and sitting on a 15 feet birdie putt. If he had missed that since I had birdied the hole, there might have been an outside chance, but I am not complaining," said Sandhu, incidentally the top ranked junior on the IGU Merit List.
Sandhu however had the consolation of equaling his best ever score of 67, when he had earlier carded at the ACM OP Mehra tournament at the Delhi Golf Club in 2003.
Amanjyot Singh, who also tied for seventh spot in the senior category dropped shots on the second, fifth, sixth, seventh, 12th and 17th, but birdied the ninth for a card of 77.
"I am happy with my win but could have finished higher on the senior category leader-board had I played well on the second and third days," said the hard-working 13-year-old from Jaipur.
SCORES (after 72 holes): Category A & B - 283 Gaganjeet Bhullar(71,69,70,73); 285 Ajeetesh Sandhu(73,74,71,67); 289 Aditya Singh(73,72,74,70); 293 Anirban Lahiri(75,75,69,74); 295 Himmat Rai(71,79,71,74); 299 Abhishek Jha(77,72,75,75); 306 Amanjyot SIngh (cat B)(72,78,79,77), Kunal Balhara(76,76,79,75); 308 Karan Taunk(81,75,74,78) Category B - 306 Amanjyot Singh (72,78,79,77); 312 Fatehbir Dhaliwal(81,73,78,80); 319 Rahul Bakshi(81,80,80,78); 321 Bhawani Parmar(79,79,86,77); 327 Pritam Haridass(80,84,82,81) Category C - 335 Rommel Majumdar(89,87,80,79); 343 Anish Gupta(88,87,84,84); 345 Khalin H Joshi(89,87,85,84); 347 Akash Vats(92,86,89,80); 357 Bharat Kollapudi(88,89,90,90) SCORES (after 54 holes): Category D - 240 Viraat Badhwar(84,74,82); 270 Rahul Ravi(87,91,92); 273 Dhruv Sachdeva(88,94,91); 283 Hemendra Choudhary(92,98,93); 284 Deepraj Chetia(95,95,94), Ainesh Ahluwalia(99,92,93).
More from rediff