GolfPlus Dec18 Digital Edition (Dec18) | Page 62

PGTI Order of Merit Professional Golf Tour of India CEO’s Message UTTAM SINGH MUNDY Greetings and best wishes from the entire team of PGTI. Shubhankar Sharma has once again been the toast of Indian golf over the last one month. The 22-year-old Shubhankar capped off a dream season on the European Tour to become the ¿ rst Indian to win the tour’s Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award. Sharma achieved the feat as he claimed a creditable 28th place on the Race to Dubai rankings thanks to his two wins and three other top-10s in the season. It could now be double delight for Shubhankar as he has also inched closer to winning the Asian Tour Order of Merit title after posting a tied sixth ¿ nish in Hong Kong which gave him a daunting lead of more than US$194,000 over his closest competitor. With the Asian Tour Order of Merit crown looking more and more likely for Shubhankar with every passing week, the two career milestones (including the European Tour Rookie of the Year) might just act as the catalysts that would facilitate his further progress in the coming years. TAKE Solutions and PGTI jointly launched the Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational presented by TAKE Solutions as a gesture to honour Indian gol¿ ng legend Jeev Milkha Singh. The event staged at Jeev’s home course, the Chandigarh Golf Club, offered a whopping Rs. 1.5 crore in prize money, the joint highest-ever for a PGTI event. The tournament also featured one of the strongest ¿ elds ever on the PGTI with the likes of tournament host Jeev Milkha Singh, Shiv Kapur, SSP Chawrasia and Jyoti Randhawa teeing it up. Chikkarangappa’s playoff win over local favourite Karandeep Kochhar provided a ¿ tting ¿ nale to the ¿ rst ever PGTI event to be named after a legendary Indian golfer. The 25-year-old Chikkarangappa S came through in a cliffhanger after he ended the regulation 72 holes tied at the top along with 19-year-old Kochhar. Chikka thus ended a two-year title drought and was back in the reckoning on the PGTI. At the IndianOil Servo Masters Golf in Digboi, the seasoned Shamim Khan retained his title after he won a playoff for the second year in succession getting the better of Noida’s Gaurav Pratap Singh on the third extra hole. Thus culminated a month of two highly competitive events on the PGTI. Best Wishes & Happy Gol¿ ng 68 GolfPlus Order of Merit as of IndianOil Servo Masters Golf 2018 (EVENT - 17) No. Player Location Total Prize 1 Khalin H Joshi Bangalore ` 6074840 2 Viraj Madappa Kolkata ` 4617097 3 Chikkarangappa S Bangalore ` 3284935 4 Karandeep Kochhar Chandigarh ` 2880250 5 Honey Baisoya Delhi ` 2738233 6 Aman Raj Patna ` 2681012 7 M Dharma Bangalore ` 2605968 8 Shamim Khan Delhi ` 2241198 9 Om Prakash Chouhan Mhow ` 2171344 10 Ajeetesh Sandhu Chandigarh ` 2067586 11 Mithun Perera Sri Lanka ` 1986051 12 Akshay Sharma Chandigarh ` 1914713 13 Jyoti Randhawa Gurgaon ` 1886920 14 N Thangaraja Sri Lanka ` 1815335 15 Mukesh Kumar Mhow ` 1687196 16 Udayan Mane Bangalore ` 1585409 17 Veer Ahlawat Delhi ` 1492622 18 Harendra Gupta Chandigarh ` 1402206 19 Tapy Ghai Gurgaon ` 1225715 20 Shankar Das Kolkata ` 1209488 21 Anura Rohana Sri Lanka ` 1196499 22 Kapil Kumar Delhi ` 1187440 23 Arjun Prasad Delhi ` 1085860 24 Divyanshu Bajaj Kolkata ` 1067434 25 Abhijit Singh Chadha Chandigarh ` 1066691 Content Editor: Nikhil Kalaan, Deputy Manager - Media, PGTI DECEMBER 2018