Gaganjeet Bhullar revealed that he knew he was in for a low score the moment he walked onto the Jaypee Greens Golf Resort for the final day of the IGPL Delhi NCR hosted by Gaurav Ghei. He had warmed up perfectly and said his body gave him the right signals.
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Bhullar carded 6-under 64, the best card so far in two IGPL tournaments and became the first back-to-back winner on the circuit that promises a lot of excitement from the young brigade. Bhullar shot 72-68-64 for 8-under total at the Jaypee course, which played to a par of 72 on the first day and then 70 on the final two days.
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Bhullar was thrilled to have gotten the IGPL to a flying start with two wins in two starts. For the second straight week, Bhullar took home a cheque of Rs. 22,50 lakhs. He grinned while saying, “Winning is always pleasing. That’s what we work for, but I am also amazed at the talent that this IGPL field had. Many of these teenagers will win not only in India but also the international arena.”
Bhullar shared, “My body was stiff on the first two days. I have been doing a lot of gym and preparing for the international stretch of my season also. But today when I warmed up, I felt my body was loose and I felt good. That’s when I knew I would be able to go low today.”
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He smiled and added, “It did go well, but for the last hole, which I three-putted.”
Pukhraj Singh Gill (6-under) was second and Kartik Singh (4-under), who had a double bogey finish were second and third.
Playing his first IGPL event, Karandeep Kochhar (3-under) and Syed Saqib Ahmed (3-under) were tied for the fourth place and Kartik Sharma (2-under) and Aman Raj (2-under), showing signs that he is on his way back from injuries, were tied for the sixth place.
Another young and new pro, Raghav Chugh (1-under) and Sachin Baisoya (1-under) were tied-eighth and the experienced Shiv Kapur, who said he was thrilled to play the IGPL, squeezed into the tenth place at even par.
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Amandeep Drall (1-over) was the top woman player in Tied-11th place, while the top amateur was 16-year-old Arshvant Srivastava, who shot 1-over on the first day, closed the week with a par final round. In between he went 6-over for the second round for a total of seven over.
Bhullar, who was five shots behind overnight leader Kartik, was off to a flying start and opened birdie-birdie. He added a third on the fifth and never took his foot off the pedal.
On the back nine of the Jaypee course, which was played to a par of 70, he added five more birdies on the 10th, 12th, 14th, 15th and the 17th with just one bogey in between on the Par-4 13th. From 2-under at the start of the day, he had soared to 9-under and targeted a double-digit score under par with just one hole left. By then his win was almost confirmed with his closest rivals, the 16-year-old Kartik Singh (73) and Pukhraj Singh Gill (68) three shots behind him.
Then Bhullar made what was probably his only mistake on a day of some amazing golf. He three-putted the 18th for a second bogey and dropped to 8-under but was still a comfortable winner by two shots.
