Manu Gandas being presented with the winners trophy.
(L to R) Mr. Amit Sachdeva (GM, Hyderabad Marriott and Convention Centre); Mr. Uttam Singh Mundy (CEO, PGTI); Mr. Narsi Reddy (Founder & MD, IRA Realty); Shri V Srinivas Goud (Hon’ble Minister of Prohibition & Excise, Sports & Youth Services, Tourism & Culture and Archaeology, Government of Telangana); Mr. Jayant Tagore (President, Hyderabad Golf Association); Manu Gandas (Winner, Telangana Golconda Maters 2022) and Mr. T Ajay Kumar Reddy (Captain – Hyderabad Golf Association).
26-year-old Manu Gandas of Gurgaon and 25 yr old Yuvraj Sandhu of Chandigarh crossed the Rs 50 lac milestone for season’s earnings as they finished 1st and 2nd at the Telangana Golconda Masters. Either one or both of them could very well overtake Rashid Khan’s 2019 PGTI earnings record of Rs 66 lacs since there are several events with larger purses yet to play before 2022 ends, including the record highest ever purse of Rs 3 crore at the season finale Tata Steel PGTI Championship in Jamshedpur.
Gandas shot 63-60-65-69 (23-under 257) to successfully defend his title and win his fourth title of the season by two-strokes over a charging Yuvraj Singh Sandhu at the picturesque Hyderabad Golf Association course built around the remains of the Golconda Fort.
A huge eight shot cushion separated the top two from Syed Saqib Ahmed who shot 64-66-67-70 (13-under 267) to finish third, and Jairaj Singh Sandhu who scored 65-66-69-68 (12-under 268) to be fourth.
“This tournament has a special place for me because this is where my breakthrough win came last year,” Gandas said. “It feels good and quite satisfying to have defended my title. It was a steady day for me even though there were some unforced errors including on the last hole. On the final hole, I got a bit greedy and went for the green from the bunker which was not a smart choice in hindsight as I left the ball in the bunker once again. I knew that the final putt was make or break for me as Yuvraj still had a birdie chance and could’ve easily taken the match into a playoff had I missed the 12-footer.
“For most part of the day, I played my own game, one shot at a time and focussed well. I was relieved after the last putt because I hadn’t played very smartly just prior to that and almost threw it away. Being focussed comes to me naturally since the very start of my career. I feel that is one of my strengths and it helped me today as well.”
As a result of his fourth win of the season, Gandas moved up one spot to second place on the PGTI Order of Merit just behind Chandigarh’s Sandhu, who climbed up to the top of the 2022 PGTI Order of Merit.
Gandas earned ₹6,00,000 while Yuvraj settled for the ₹4,00,000 runner-up cheque. Both have now won four times on the tour this year and while Manu has raked in INR ₹50,02,288 lacs to this point, Yuvraj is narrowly ahead with earnings of ₹51,14,768 lacs.
“Let your golf swing be simple rather than make it like packing too many things into a suitcase”@CallawayGolf @TRAVISMATHEW @GoSportsVoices
@sandyfrombunker#Golf #golfswing #bettereveryday #BetterTogether #TeamYuvraj #NirbhauNirvair pic.twitter.com/OOU85Rd62l— Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (@SandhuYuvraj_1) November 14, 2022
All of this makes for an exciting battle between the two over the next few weeks in the run up to the Tata Steel Tour Championship in Jamshedpur next month and for player of the year honours.
Meanwhile Hyderabad’s Milind Soni shot 63-65-75-72 (5-under 275) to win the low-amateur title. Soni was tied for second after the first two days but faded on the weekend. Soni recently represented India at the prestigious Asia Pacific Amateur Championship and won the IGU’s Andhra Pradesh Amateur Championship and Assam Amateur Championship earlier this year.
Credits:-
Photo – PGTI