Arjun Atwal wins Eastern Open golf

Arjun Atwal won the Wills Eastern Open golf title in Calcutta, on Saturday, after another superlative display of power golf which saw him returne a five under-64.

His playing partner and close friend Indrajit Bhalotia finished second.

Arjun closed at 13 under 275 and will rue the missed opportunity of breaking the four-round course record at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club due to Friday's lapse, when he had a 77. Saturday's round saw him record birdies on the 4th, 7th, 12th and 16th, paring all the other holes for an outward score of 33 and an inward score of 34.

Indrajit Bhalotia made a wonderful start at his final bid in catching the leader. He birdied the 1st two holes and followed it up with another on the 5th for an outward score of 34. On his way in he birdied the 10th and 15th and eagled the 12th. This good show was, however, marred to a slight extent by his bogey on the 13th and 18th holes.

Finishing third 10 shots behind was another local, Feroz Ali. Feroz played a 2 over 74 for a finish of 291. One shot behind at 292 were Mahindra leader of the year Vijay Kumar, Ali Sher and Digvijay Singh.

Vijay Kumar had his best round of the tournament shooting a one under par.

It was definately a one horse race as Arjun never lost control of his 6 stroke lead and was the deserving winner, taking home Rs.1,62,000. Indrajit Bhalotia collected 1,12,000 for his efforts.

In the Amateur section Rahil Ganjee and Sanjay Mehra both finished with an identical 4-day total of 298. Because of a better score on the last 36 holes Rahil got the better of Sanjeev. Both of them had a rather dissapointing final round scoring 79 and 78 respectively. Their best effort were 71 on day 3 by Rahil and 3 under 69 on day 2 by Sanjeev.

The Wills Eastern Open, the last regional of the year, could not have asked for a better grand stand finish and full marks to RCGC for being such a wonderful venue.

SCORES: 275_ Arjun Atwal (68,63,77,67); 281_Indrajit Balotia(71,72,71,67); 291_Firoz Ali (74,71,72,74); 292_Vijay Kumar (72,74,75,71), Ali Sher (74,73,71,74), Digvijay Singh (70,75,73,74); 293_Mukesh Kumar (73,72,71,77); 294_Mohd. Islam (76,73,72,73), Uttam Singh Mundy (74,73,73,74); 295_SSP Chaurasia (73,72,74,76)

AMATEURS: 298_Rahil Ganjee (74,74,71,79), Sanjeev Mehra (78,69,73,78)