GolfPlus Nov18 Digital Edition (Nov18) | Page 56

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. The month of October saw yet another young Indian golfer achieve his ¿ rst breakthrough on the international stage as Khalin Joshi broke the victory barrier on the Asian Tour with his triumph at the Panasonic Open India. In what can be seen as a big positive for Indian golf, over the last one year, three Indians - Shubhankar Sharma, Viraj Madappa and Khalin Joshi - have announced their arrival on the global stage by bagging their maiden international titles. Khalin Joshi’s perseverance paid off when he ¿ nally secured his ¿ rst title in Asia after coming close on a few occasions before. The 26-year-old Joshi displayed tremendous grit by making four birdies on the last ¿ ve holes to seal the win despite tough competition from the likes of Md Siddikur Rahman and Ajeetesh Sandhu. Khalin’s win continued India’s stranglehold on the Panasonic Open India trophy as he became the seventh Indian to win the tournament in a total of eight editions. The win was also the sixth by an Indian at the international level this year which once again reÀ ects the upward graph of Indian professional golf. We congratulate Khalin on joining the winner’s circle in Asia. He has now taken the leadin the 2018 PGTI Order of Merit. The Panasonic Open India 2018 witnessed some exceptional performances from other Indian golfers as well as Ajeetesh Sandhu claimed tied third place, 23-year-old Aman Raj posted a career-best ¿ fth and 17-year-old Kshitij Naveed Kaul made an impressive professional debut by securing tied sixth place. The Kensville Open 2018 presented by PGTI, which returned for its second edition, welcomed yet another new winner on the PGTI in the form of 22-year- old Tapy Ghai. Ghai signed off an outstanding week with a ¿ ery ¿ nal round performance of ¿ ve-under-67 to pick up his maiden title. A new PGTI record was set when four new champions emerged on the tour in four consecutive tournaments - Viraj Madappa (TAKE Solutions Masters 2018), Aman Raj (Jaipur Open 2018 presented by Rajasthan Tourism), Akshay Sharma (QA InfoTech Open 2018) and Tapy Ghai (Kensville Open 2018 presented by PGTI). This can be seen as a sign of the growing depth of talent and ¿ erce competition on the tour. Best Wishes & Happy Gol¿ ng 68 GolfPlus Order of Merit as of Panasonic Open India 2018 (EVENT - 15) No. Player Location Total Prize 1 Khalin H Joshi Bangalore ` 5867090 2 Viraj Madappa Kolkata ` 4372490 3 Honey Baisoya Delhi ` 2738233 4 Aman Raj Patna ` 2221262 5 Ajeetesh Sandhu Chandigarh ` 1900550 6 Om Prakash Chouhan Mhow ` 1874820 7 M Dharma Bangalore ` 1846218 8 Mithun Perera Sri Lanka ` 1733976 9 Akshay Sharma Chandigarh ` 1662638 10 N Thangaraja Sri Lanka ` 1570728 11 Mukesh Kumar Mhow ` 1459271 12 Udayan Mane Bangalore ` 1340802 13 Shamim Khan Delhi ` 1269166 14 Veer Ahlawat Delhi ` 1258322 15 Tapy Ghai Gurgaon ` 1225715 16 Karandeep Kochhar Chandigarh ` 1205500 17 Anura Rohana Sri Lanka ` 1069749 18 Shankar Das Kolkata ` 1026563 19 Md Zamal Hossain Mollah Bangladesh ` 1011335 20 Arjun Prasad Delhi ` 1009585 21 Kapil Kumar Delhi ` 994465 22 Jyoti Randhawa Gurgaon ` 947170 23 Rahil Gangjee Bangalore ` 938510 24 Syed Saqib Ahmed Bangalore ` 938453 25 Abhijit Singh Chadha Chandigarh ` 899655 Content Editor: Nikhil Kalaan, Deputy Manager - Media, PGTI NOVEMBER 2018