New Delhi, March 31, 2009: Day one of the Aircel PGTI’s SRF All India Professional Golf Matchplay Championship 2009 threw up a number of interesting results. While some of the top contenders such as defending champion Arjun Singh, top seed Mukesh Kumar, Gaurav Ghei, SSP Chowrasia, Shamim Khan and Ashok Kumar advanced to the second round, other big names such as Digvijay Singh, Anirban Lahiri, Himmat Singh Rai, Harmeet Kahlon and Ali Sher made early exits.

Om Prakash Chouhan

Jaiveer Virk of the Delhi Golf Club produced the biggest upset of the day when he defeated fourth seed Digvijay Singh by a margin of 3 & 1 (three holes ahead with one left to play). Virk won the first, ninth, 11th, 12th, 13th and 17th holes while Digvijay won on the eighth, 14th and 16th holes.

Virk said, “I was pretty consistent through the day. I played conservatively on the front nine today. The par on the ninth helped me take the lead at a crucial point. From then on the match swung in my favour as I won four holes on the back nine with par.”

“I knew I had to shoot under par to beat Digvijay today because he does not make too many mistakes and is generally very consistent,” added Virk, who always plays well at his home course, the DGC.

Mukesh Kumar cruised into the round of 32 after he won against Ajay Jadeja 5 & 4. Mukesh, the top seed, was six up at the turn before Jadeja won his first hole on the 10th. Mukesh then extended his lead on the 12th even as Jadeja fought back to win the 13th. It was all over as soon as the 14th hole was halved. At that stage Mukesh was five ahead with four holes remaining.

“I was not at my best today. My driving was poor even though I did well with the irons and the putter. I won a number of holes with par,” said Mukesh.

Mhow’s Om Prakash Chouhan, who is coached by Mukesh Kumar, delivered a memorable 2 Up victory against 12th seed Himmat Singh Rai. It was all square till the 16th before Chouhan won the 17th and 18th to wrap up the match.

“I have gained a lot of confidence after beating a formidable opponent such as Himmat. Himmat has been in good form, having won a tournament this year, so it was good to get past him. I was at the top of my game today and hope to continue in this form for the rest of the tournament,” said 22-year-old Chouhan.

Amit Dube

Noida-based professional Amit Dube caused another major upset when he knocked out seventh seed Anirban Lahiri 4 & 3. Dube established an early lead on Lahiri, who was fresh from his best finish on the Asian Tour last week and did not allow him to get back into the game.

In some of the other important matches on day one, defending champion Arjun Singh prevailed over Joseph Chakola 4 & 3, Gaurav Ghei edged out Manav Jaini 2 & 1, SSP Chowrasia beat Vishal Singh 5 & 4 and last year’s runner-up Shamim Khan defeated Amritinder Singh 4 & 3. Harendra Gupta beat Anthony Choat on the 19 th hole (first playoff hole) in a tough contest.

There were a couple of minor upsets as last year’s semi-finalist Ali Sher lost out to Chandigarh’s Gurbaaz Mann while Patna’s Mohd Islam beat Harmeet Kahlon 1 Up.

The closest encounter in round one was between Nepal’s Toran Bikram Shahi and DGC’s Vinod Kumar. Toran emerged victorious on the 22nd hole (fourth playoff hole).

Kolkata’s Feroz Ali Mollah defeated Neil Mundra 8 & 7 to register the largest margin of victory on day one.

Thirty two professionals will be involved in 16 matches in the second round on Wednesday, April 1.


What is Match Play?
Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player or team earns points for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; this is as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted.