Delhi’s Nikhil Shekhawat played his best when it mattered most to emerge the winner of the South Zone qualifier of the Tata Steel IGU National amateur tour here on Saturday.
Nikhil fired seven birdies in his round of one-under par 71 at the testing course and finished his engagement with a tally of 20-over 308. He was a clear six shot over home crowd favourite Vashista Pawar.
Sunit Chowrasia of Kolkata had to rest content for the third place with a total of 318.
As many as 126 youngsters played the South Zone qualifier of which 64 made the midway cut. The top 30 finishers got a direct entry into the three main events to be held in the Tata Steel Tamil Nadu Open amateur beginning here on Tuesday. It will be followed by the Tata Steel Southern India amateur and Karnataka Open amateur at the Eagleton Golf resort.
The results: Nikhil S. Sekhawat (79, 80, 78, 71) 308; Vashista Pawar (77, 74, 85, 78) 314; Sunit Chowrasia (80, 75, 76, 87) 318; Rajesh Gautam (81, 77, 80, 81) 319; Aalaap IL (77, 83, 78, 82),Shivnaren Srinivasan (76, 78, 83, 83) 320; K. Anirudh (83, 76, 80, 82) 321; Sudipta Das (78, 80, 83, 81);Nikhil Mohan (77, 77, 87, 81) 322; Angadjit S. Sandhu (81, 77, 87, 79) 324. — Special Correspondent