Rishi Narain won his second Senior National Amateur title in Ahmedabad
Former Asian Games gold medalist Rishi Narain won the Indian Golf Union’s 50th annual All-India Seniors Golf Championship, played at the challenging Kalhaar Blues & Greens in Ahmedabad.
The three-day stroke-play event was held over the Jack Nicklaus signature design course with tough pin positions and swirling winds on the final day. Narain shot a total of 230, 14 over par over 54 holes for a one-shot win over a charging Ajai Sirohi of Delhi GC to earn his second Senior Amateur title.
Noida Golf Club’s Simarjeet Singh won the All India Mid-Amateur Championship (for players over 35 years of age) for the 3rd consecutive year shooting a solid 2 over par total 290 for 72 holes, by a huge margin of 16 strokes over Arjun Singh of RCGC and Shakti Singh of Noida GC.
Simarjeet Singh of Noida GC (Mid-Am Winner) with Rishi Narain (Senior Amateur Winner)
In the 65 and above category, Army Golf Club, New Delhi’s Anil Jule prevailed over Pune’s Sanjay Kolhatkar by a single stroke margin.
The defending champion Gangesh Khaitan who won the Seniors title in 2017 and 2019 had to withdraw after the first round due to food poisoning.
In case the annual Asia Pacific Senior Championship is held this year (no event was held in 2020 and 2021 due to travel restrictions) the likely members of the Indian team are the top 6 finishers in the tournament which include Rishi Narain, Ajai Sirohi, Kensville GC – Ahmedabad’s Lokendra Malik; Bangalore’s David D Souza, Dilip Sharma of Delhi and Mehul Rastogi of Noida GC with first reserve Sandeep Sandhu of Chandigarh.
Narain had previously won the 2018 All-India Senior Amateur at Jaypee Greens, which made him just the second Indian men’s golfer in history to win all three IGU National titles: All-India Junior, All-India Amateur and All-India Seniors after Amit Luthra. Narain won the Juniors in 1979 and the All-India Amateur in 1984.