Sandhu prevails over Udayan in marathon playoff for back-to-back wins

Hosur (Tamil Nadu), Aug 22 (PTI) Yuvraj Sandhu prevailed over Udayan Mane in a marathon playoff that lasted five extra holes to win the PGTI Players Championship at the Clover Greens Golf Course and Resort on Friday.

Both Sandhu, the overnight leader by three shots, and Mane, who was overnight second, ended the regulation 72 holes with identical totals of 28-under 256 that pushed the match into a dramatic playoff.

The 28-year-old Sandhu (63-67-61-65), also the winner in Mysuru last week, thus registered back-to-back titles and took a commanding lead in the PGTI Order of Merit after picking up the winning cheque worth Rs 15 lakh.

Sandhu's fourth victory of the year, achieved after a solid final round of six-under 65 and a gritty playoff performance, took his season's earnings to Rs 88,67,200 giving him a lead of over Rs 25 lakh in the PGTI's merit list.

Olympian and Pune-based professional Mane (67-65-62-62), a 12-time winner and former PGTI Order of Merit champion who was looking to end a four-year-long victory drought, fired a second straight nine-under 62 on Friday to force a playoff.

Mane's runner-up cheque worth Rs 10 lakh pushed him up two spots to fourth position in the PGTI's money list.

Delhi's Kshitij Naveed Kaul (68-67-64-66) delivered a 66 in the last round to claim the third spot at 19-under 265.

The 18-year-old Veer Ganapathy (65) of Bengaluru won the trophy for the best performance by an amateur as he ended tied fourth at a total of 17-under 267.

Three other players who secured tied fourth place were Delhi's Shaurya Bhattacharya (65), Gurugram's Kartik Sharma (67) and Nepal's Subash Tamang (67).

Sandhu, who registered his 13th professional win, was in top form with the driver as he drove the Par-4 greens on three occasions on Friday.

He also scored birdies on three out of the four Par-5s by landing his second shots on the green by putting on a show with his outstanding ball-striking.

Sandhu was on a roll on the front-nine as he picked up five birdies. However, on the back-nine he mixed four birdies with three bogeys allowing Mane a window of opportunity.

Mane, who began the day with birdies on the first four holes, went on to add another five birdies thereafter at the cost of a lone bogey. Mane, trailing Sandhu through the day, eventually caught up with him when the latter dropped a bogey on the closing 18th that forced a playoff.

After high drama on the first four playoff holes (the Par-3 18th was the playoff hole) where both players made pars, it came down to the decisive fifth extra hole where Sandhu came up with an immaculate tee shot that set up a four-feet birdie putt for him.

Even as Mane made par on the fifth playoff hole, Sandhu sank the all-important four-feet birdie putt to clinch a memorable victory.

"I would like to thank my team consisting of my mental coach, my physical trainer, my coach Gurbaaz Mann who is here today and my family. They've all contributed a lot in making me believe that I can be the best," Sandhu said.

"During the playoff, I kept telling myself that this is what you live for, train for and dream of. That kept me going. Then on the decisive playoff hole, the yardage of 104 yards from the tee was just perfect for me.

"In practice, I have often holed my shots from that distance. So I was quite confident on the tee and visualized my shot well that helped me get it close to the flag." PTI AH AH AT AT