Chandigarh Sandhus dominate victory podium

CHANDIGARH: The Sandhus from Chandigarh, Yuvraj and Ajeetesh, ended the three-round reign of foreign professionals over the leaderboard at the Panchkula greens and ensured that the trophy and a share of the runners-up slot fell within the domestic dominion. Yuvraj, on a hot streak since November 2021 picked up his fifth title since then and the fourth of the current year by bagging the Rs 50 lakh TATA Steel PGTI Players Championship 2022 presented by American Express hosted by the Haryana Government / Panchkula Golf Club (PGC).
Ajeetesh mounted a magnificent charge during Friday's shootout round by scoring a bogey-free 65 that included five birdies on the back nine holes but fell short of Yuvraj's cumulative total of 19-under-par, 269, distributed over scores of 68-68-65-68, by a mere stroke. Ajeetesh shared the second spot with Bangladeshi Jamal Mollah who fired a final round, 66. Sri Lankan N. Thangaraja (68) finished fourth with a score of 16-under 272 while overnight leader Badal Hossain (73) of Bangladesh finished fifth at 15-under 273. Yuvraj took home the winner's cheque of Rs 7.5 lakh while Ajeetesh and Jamal bagged Rs 3,99,950 each. Following this championship, Yuvraj rose to the second slot in the 2022 Tata Steel-PGTI Rankings while Ajeetesh is at the top. Yuvraj has triumphed twice in the Tricity in 2022 having won events in both Chandigarh (April 2022) and Panchkula (October 2022). He has narrowed the gap between himself and the Order of Merit leader Ajeetesh, as the latter now leads the merit list with a margin of less than Rs 2 lakh.
Both the Sandhus will hope to ride the momentum gained at the PGC to pose a strong challenge at next week's mega-event, the Rs. 1.5 crore Jeev Milkha Invitational by TAKE at the Chandigarh Golf Club, which boasts of a deep field and intense pressure till the very last. While Yuvraj has been at the top of his game on Indian courses since November last, his performance abroad during the same period has not matched it as he has just a lone top-10 finish to his name while playing the Asian Tour and the Asian Development Tour. "It feels amazing to win in the Tricity, which is my home. The conditions were perfect and the home support was the icing on the cake. I was consistent through the week and that was the only way to brave your way to the top on this course, and I am glad my strategy worked," said Yuvraj.