Greater Noida, Feb 26 (IANS) It’s turning out to be a two-horse race between UP Prometheans and Rajasthan Regals as the two leading teams won all their matches in the third round of DP World PGTI 72 The League, which was played at the Jaypee Greens Golf Course in Greater Noida on Thursday.
Both UP and Rajasthan started the day on 17 points and then added the maximum possible 15 from Thursday’s outing. Prometheans beat Kolkata Classics, while Regals produced a similar result against Mumbai Aces. In the third match of the day, Nava Raipur beat Charminar Champions 9-6 to keep their hopes alive of reaching the final as they moved to third place with 23 points.
Interestingly, all 15 matches of the day produced a definite result, with none of them being halved.
UP captain Shaurya Bhattacharya, who paired with Himmat Rai to beat Khalin Joshi and Ajay Baisoya 4&3 in the fourballs, said: “It was a really good day. I was happy with the way I played personally and with the pairing I had with Himmat Rai. And I was delighted with how the rest of our team played.
“We were all square after 10 holes, after leading through the turn. Then Himmat made a clutch putt on the 11th hole for a birdie from 12 feet on the 11th to halve the hole, and we felt that changed the momentum completely towards our side,” he said.
“Today was very important for us. We felt like we could capitalise on today and get as many points as possible. And now we are in a comfortable position, but we are all looking forward to the next two rounds.”
As luck would have it, Prometheans will face Regals in the final league round. “We have a couple of strong teams in the final two matches – Nava Raipur and UP. We have given our best over the first three rounds, and we understand that while that can give us a day like today, it can also give us a day like yesterday, when we lost in the second round,” said the 31-year-old Dhruv Sheoran, who took down Aces captain Veer Ahlawat by 2&1.
Sheoran’s win set the tone, which also included a thumping 8&6 win for captain Ajeetesh Sandhu and Michele Ortolani over Mumbai’s Aniket Sawant and Declan Kenny.
“I am a very good friend of Veer, and I admire his game. He is a very strong driver of the golf ball, and he has a very good short game. I’d be lying if I said I was not nervous about our match. But I backed myself on the range and just wanted to stick to the game plan I had and back myself up. And then it was nice to play with Veer as we kept laughing and talking through the round,” added Sheoran.
“In this competition, every player on the team has to play at least one match in each format. That is a challenge to figure out who can play how many matches. There’s a lot of planning that goes into it because you want to put your best foot forward. So, we give the planning its due diligence, but after that, we just forget all about it, and we help each other out.”
Chikkarangappa S. and Sheoran (both Regals), Abhinav Lohan (UP Prometheans), and Anant Singh Ahlawat (Nava Raipur) are the players who have won all their matches across the three rounds.
The fourth round of the league will be played on Monday, 2nd March, at Classic Golf & Country Club. Charminar Champions will take on bottom-of-the-standings Kolkata Classic, while Rajasthan Regals will be challenged by Nava Raipur. Mumbai Aces will face UP Prometheans.
League standings after the 3rd round:
Rajasthan Regals – 32 points
UP Prometheans – 32 points
Nava Raipur – 23 points*
Charminar Champions – 21 points
Mumbai Aces – 11 points*
Kolkata Classics – 7 points
(* denotes one unfinished fourball match from the first round, the result of which will be determined on Monday).
–IANS
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