Sanjay Kumar’s team wins Sher-e-Kashmir

Sanjay Kumar and his team won the pro-am as professional golf returned to the Valley after a gap of 12 years with the beginning of the Sher-e-Kashmir Open at the Royal Springs Golf Club course in Srinagar on Wednesday.

Sanjay, from Lucknow, led his team comprising SDS Jamwal, Aizaz Murtaza and Arshad Kar to victory by tallying 107 points. Rohtas Singh and his team of Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Dr Farooq Abdullah, captain Katoch and GM Khandey also aggregated 107 points, but were beaten to second place by the better back-nine score of Sanjay’s team on the count-back. The winners tallied 57 points compared to 54 by Rohtas’s team.

There was a fight for the third place as well. Pappan and his team of Izaz Ai Rah, Vikram Kumar and Dr. Khurshid Ahmed tallied 103 points and beat Gaurav Ghei’s team of BR Singh, Ishfaq Ahmed and RK Tickoo on the back-nine.

Sanjay received Rs 5,000 while Rohtas had to be content with Rs 3,000. Pappan was richer by Rs 2,000.

The prizes were distributed by Dr. Farooq Abdullah, the Honarable Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, at a small and simple function after the day’s play. The Chief Minister thanked the professional golfers for showing their faith in Kashmir and participating in the tournament. He also said golf would form a big part of the state’s tourism plans. The amateurs won crystal trophies and the winning team also received a gift hamper from Nike.

The best individual score by a professional was two-under 70, or 38 stableford points, by Rohtas, Digvijay Singh, Rafiq Ali and Ali Sher. The four players shared a total sum of Rs 5,000, meant for the best two individual scores.

In the amateur section, I Durrani returned the best card of 38 stableford points to beat Deen Wali to second place by one point. Also shooting 37 among the amateurs were Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Dr. Khurshid Ahmed, but they were not eligible for individual prizes after winning team prizes.

Meanwhile, Hotel Broadway, the hospitality sponsors of the Sher-e-Kashmir Open, added a new attraction for professional golfers when they announced a Rs 50,000 prize for the first hole-in-one scored by a pro for the tournament. The award offer is open for the pros on all four par-three holes of the course.

The Sher-e-Kashmir Open forms the sixth leg of the Hero Honda Golf Tour’s 2001-02 calendar. The winner’s cheque this week will be worth Rs 2,43,000 while the runner-up will be richer by Rs 1,68,000. The tournament is being managed by Tiger Sports Marketing.