S Chikkarangappa showed his temperament and tenacity in good measure at the KGA course to defend his all-India amateur golf title in the 110 edition of the championship, here on Sunday.
Chikka was down with a six-hole deficit against fellow Banglorean Pritam Haridas but bounced back with a sizzling back nine and won the 34th hole 3 and 2 in the matchplay format to retain his title.
In the women's final Delhi's Gauri Monga downed Shreya Ghei in the final. It was Gauri's first all-India ladies title. Gauri won 2 and 1 in the final that ended on the 17th.
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Chikka, starting as hot favourite, found himself six-down in 12 holes in the morning. “I don't know what happened. I was playing bad golf. I was neither finding the fairways, nor the greens. But I needed to stay calm. Even at six-down after 12, I spoke to my caddie and said, we still have 24 holes to go. It is a long match,” said the 17-year-old after clinching the title. It was also the time his coach, Vijay Divecha started walking along and that calmed his nerves.
Pritam, admitted, “In the morning, it was not that I played very well. It was just that Chikka played badly. He had a couple of three-putts, had a few misses and bad shots. But with Chikka, you never know. He is a great fighter and he can always come back from any stage.”
Chikka levelled the match at the 28th hole and never looked back.
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Chikka became only the fifth Indian, and fifth player to win back-to-back amateur titles in post-Independence India.
The first Indian to do so was the legendary IS Malik in 1955 and 1956. The ones to follow him were P.S. Billoo Sethi in 1961 and 1962, and then Alan Singh, now the Indian team's coach, in 1975 and 1976. The last one to achieve this feat was Amit Luthra in 1994 and 1995.