KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 25: Mukesh Kumar claimed his second title on the Wills Sport Indian Golf Tour when he captured the Rs 7.5-lakh Surya Nepal Masters after his second successive round of six-under 66 on the final day.In a story almost similar to last week’s ONGC-Noida Golf Club Open, Vijay Kumar missed out on the title as he finished second after a final round of one-over 73. Vijay’s four-day aggregate was nine-under 279. Shiv Prakash shot a two-under 70 to take the third place at five-under 283, while two Nepali pros Deepak Thapa Magar and Deepak Acharya were among those tied for the fourth place at two-under 286. Starting two strokes behind Vijay, Mukesh began with a tap-in birdie on the first hole after his 9-iron shot left him with a putt of less than one feet. In fact, the outcome of the tournament was decided on the opening hole itself when Vijay’s awesome drive went straight into the jungle on the left side across the fourth fairway and he had to settle for a triple bogey after taking penalty drops twice. Mukesh was on fire as his short-iron shots peppered the flags with almost radar-like accuracy. On the par-5 third, he went into the right greenside bunker with his second shot but made his up-and-down for a birdie. On the fourth, he chipped to one feet and went three-under for the day. On the sixth, he hit the sandwedge second shot to less than a feet again for another birdie. On the par-4 ninth, he took the tiger line over the trees and drove the green but was left with a eagle putt of over 150 feet. A brilliant first putt left him three feet short and he duly made another birdie to go five-under at the turn. Vijay did not give up without a fight. After the disaster on the first hole, he made a 20-footer birdie putt on the second, and then added birdies on the fifth, seventh and ninth to make the turn at one-under and just two strokes off Mukesh. On the back nine, Mukesh made a bogey on the 10th and the lead was cut to one stroke. But on the 14th hole, Vijay made a bogey and followed it up with a double bogey on the 15th after hitting the right drain on both occasions. SCORES (after 72 holes): 274 Mukesh Kumar (69,73,66,66); 279 Vijay Kumar (72,66,68,73); 283 Shiv Prakash (72,70,71,70); 286 Rahul Ganapathy (71,75,74,66), Uttam Singh Mundy (69,67,79,71), Deepak Thapa Magar (74,69,71,72), Deepak Acharya (70,70,72,74); 288 Rohtas Sngh (76,72,70,70); 289 Pappan (71,72,72,74); 292 Zai Kipgen (71,78,70,73), Sanjay Kumar (70,78,70,70), Amish Jaitha (74,74,70,74), 293 Vinod Kumar (78,74,70,71); 295 Ranjit Singh (7476,76,69), Shamim Khan (71,79,76,69), Ajay Gupta (74,74,70,77); 297 Babu Ahmed (67,77,80,73). Amateurs: 298 Rahil Gangjee (84,69,69,76); 317 Bijesh Shahi (80,77,76,84); 320 CB Bhandari (80,81,76,83)
