Sandhu wins Golconda open

Chandigarh’s Ajeetesh Sandhu capped a memorable week by firing a sizzling six-under 65 in the final round to clinch the Golconda Masters golf tournament at the Hyderabad Golf Club (HGC) here on Saturday.

Sandhu scripted a superb start to finish victory as he totalled 23-under 261 to register a four strokes win over Gurgaon’s Shubhankar Sharma, the winner at last week’s PGTI event.

On the first seven holes, Sandhu and Sharma (66-66-65-68), picked up two birdies each with the former hanging on to his slender one-shot lead. Kolkata’s Feroz Ali Mollah, the other contender at the start of the day, dropped out of the race, courtesy a bogey on the fourth. The match swung decisively in Sandhu’s favour as he birdied the eighth and 11th while Shubhankar conceded a disastrous double-bogey on the 10th where he lost his ball after pushing his drive to the right.

Sandhu’s five-shot lead after the 12th was cut down to three after he had a minor blip with a bogey on 13 even as Sharma gained a shot on 14. However, there was no threat for the leader thereafter and he went on to complete a comfortable win, his first in over three years, with birdies on the last two holes.

An ecstatic Sandhu said, “I’m glad to finally get over the line after such a long time. It is very satisfying to record a wire-to-wire win. It’s been a special week as I also registered my best tournament score and my best single round score of nine-under in the first round.” Sandhu took home the winner’s cheque worth Rs. 6 lakh.