Lahiri clinches Royal Challenge Pune amateur title

Pune, Jan 27 (UNI) Anirban Lahiri held his nerve, played to a ''not-to-drop shots'' plan and walked away with the Royal Challenge Pune Open Amateur Golf Championship title.

The 19-year-old worked out his plan with a final round score of one-under 70 to steer seven strokes clear of nearest rival Jasjeet Singh with a 11-under 273 aggregate. Lahiri became the only player in the 84-strong field to finish the tournament with sub par rounds.

His card was also the only sub-par round of the final day.

While Lahiri may have had his plan in order, his fellow overnight leaders Jasjeet Singh and Gagan Verma seemed to have lost all track of the par-71 Poona Club golf course. Both, Jasjeet and Gagan, seemed to be under pressure because of the way Lahiri was playing.

Having teed off with 203 apiece, things seemed to take different paths by the 5th hole itself. Verma was first to fall back with a double bogey on the 3rd. Two holes later, Jasjeet logged his first blemish, a bogey. Verma, who along with Lahiri, played in the top group was no better carding his first triple bogey, which put him six strokes behind Lahiri who birdied the hole.

With the championship reduced to a two way race between Jasjeet, who trailed Lahiri by one, the former lost confidence on the 9th.

Missing a one-foot birdie putt, which incidentally Lahiri birdied, left Jasjeet broken. ''It was unreal. My head spun,'' said Jasjeet who went on to bogey the 10th, sank his chances by finding the water on the next and went seven behind Lahiri -- a margin that remained till the end.

The Poona Open was Lahiri's second win this season after the GKD Memorial Gold Cup in Coimbatore and, incidentally, his third overall on the Amateur tour, after Chandigarh in 2005.

Verma with a seven-over 78, aggregated 281 and shared third spot with Shaurya Singh. However a better Day 4 score gave him the third spot.

Following are the scores (after 72 holes; par-284): 273-Anirban Lahiri (67, 70, 66, 70); 280-Jasjeet Singh (67, 67, 69, 77); 281-Gagan Verma (67, 68, 68, 78), Shaurya Singh (71, 69, 70, 71); 282-Moin Malak (73, 71, 65, 73); 285-Joseph Chakola (72, 74, 68, 71); 288-S Bahuguna (68, 72, 72, 76); 289-Vikram Rana (70, 73, 73, 73); 291-Raj Randhawa (70, 72, 73, 76), Balpreet Ghuman (73, 71, 72, 75); 292-HS Kang (70, 70, 77, 75); 293-Tarun Ghogle (74, 74, 71, 74), Balwinder Mattu (75, 74, 72, 72).

UNI