SCORESHEET
ROUND 2
ROUND 1


April 9th 2010, New Delhi: The semi-final line-up at the SRF All India Professional Golf Matchplay Championship 2010 is complete as Delhi golfers Ashok Kumar, Shamim Khan and Vinod Kumar and Chandigarh’s Randhir Singh Ghotra made it to the last four after winning their respective quarter-final matches on Friday afternoon at the Delhi Golf Club.

Randhir Singh Ghotra of Chandigarh first upstaged one of the top contenders, Gaurav Ghei of the Delhi Golf Club, by a 3 & 2 margin in his pre-quarter-final match played in the morning and then came up trumps with a 2 & 1 score line against Navtez Singh of Jamshedpur in the quarter-final stage later in the afternoon.

Randhir was four ahead after 11 holes in his quarter-final encounter against Navtez Singh but the latter won the next three holes from there on to close the gap to one. The two player halved the 16th before Ghotra finally wrapped it up with a par on the 17th as Navtez dropped a bogey on the same hole as a result of finding the bunker.

Ghotra said, “I played solid through the day. My hitting was good during the first match (pre-quarters) while my short-game fell in place during the second (quarter-final). I made only one mistake in the quarters and that was the bogey on the 12th where I missed a two-footer for par.”

“My confidence is very high at this stage since I have beaten two formidable opponents on the same day. While it’s always difficult to beat Gaurav Ghei on his home turf, Navtez was also in great form this week and almost made a comeback on the back nine. The best aspect of my game today was that I handled pressure very well, having made some pressure putts in the quarter-finals,” added Ghotra, who will now face Vinod Kumar in the first semi-final on Saturday.

Defending champion and second seed Ashok Kumar made his way into the semi-finals as he beat Rafick Ali Mollah of Kolkata 2 & 1 in the pre-quarters and then prevailed 1 Up against veteran Ali Sher in the quarter-finals. Ashok will now play third seed Shamim Khan of the Delhi Golf Club in the semi-final. Shamim edged out Chiragh Kumar on the 19th hole in the round of 16 and then went on to rout Raju Ali Mollah of Kolkata by a 6 & 4 margin in his quarter-final match.

Vinod Kumar, another professional from the Delhi Golf Club, booked a semi-final berth for himself as he upset fifth seed Harendra Gupta of Chandigarh 2 & 1 in the pre-quarters and then defeated Patna’s Mohd Islam by a 1 Up margin in the quarter-finals. Vinod Kumar, the runner-up at the 2006 SRF Matchplay, sealed his quarter-final match with a chip-in from the bunker for birdie on the 18th. In the other pre-quarter final matches played during the first half of the day, Navtez Singh prevailed over R Srinivas (1 Up), Mohd Islam defeated Rajiv Datar (1 Up), Ali Sher beat Ranjit Singh (3 & 2) and Raju Ali Mollah ended R Murthy’s challenge (4 & 2).