Sandeep Sandhu with his 55-60 years category individual winner trophy
The Indian Golf Union’s four member senior amateur team had a successful outing in Vietnam at the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederations (APGC) Senior Amateur Championship at Vinpearl Golf last week highlighted by Sandeep Sandhu’s individual 6th place and the team’s 4th place finish in the 54 hole stroke play event on gross scores.
Sandhu, who has honed his game on India’s AVT Champions Tour in the past 4 years, entered the final round after scores of 71-71, trailing James Lavender of Australia by two-strokes but faltered on the closing holes to finish tied-6th.
Indian seniors squad – Sandeep Sandhu, Gaurav Ghosh, Jaideep Singh and David D’Souza
Gaurav Ghosh, who recently won the All India Senior Amateur title at RCGC, carded consistent rounds of 75-77-76 to register a tied-12th finish at 12-over 228.
David D’Souza of Bangalore and Jaideep Singh of Kolkata were the other two members of the team, which finished 4th behind the powerhouse teams from Australia, New Zealand and Korea.
India’s former international Amit Luthra, BSF’s Pushpendra Rathore and Delhi’s Ankur Prakash, also played as individual entries in the event.
All the Indian senior team participants have been active on the 15 events held since 2015 on the AVT Champions Tour, a series of four tournaments for golfers over 50 years which prepares them for the IGU All India and APGC international senior events.
The Indian contingent was chosen following the IGU’s All India Seniors tournament held at RCGC in Kolkata two weeks ago, wherein the top four finishers earned the invitation to represent India in the upcoming competition.
Team Australia showcased their supremacy in the tournament by securing victory in all four categories: Individual Men, Women, and Men’s Team, as well as Women’s Team. No Indian women participated in the tournament.
Photo – Sandeep Sandhu