Yusuf Ali overcame a fighting Vijay Kumar and a bogey-ridden round of golf to annex the Rs 10-lakh Air Canada Forest Hill Golf Open in a thrilling play-off at the par-70, Forest Hill Golf & Country Club course in Chandigarh on Sunday. The play-off was necessitated after the two golfers tied at an identical score of one-under 281. Yusuf's win earned him the winner's cheque of Rs 1,62,000, while Vijay had to settle for Rs 1,12,000.

With Vijay Kumar occupying the second position, Delhi youngster Shamim Khan took possession of the third place at three-over 285.

In an effort to speed up play and avoid congestion on the golf course, the originally par-4 third and 12th holes were played as par-3's. This brought the par for the course down by two strokes to 70.

The par-4 18th hole at the Forest Hill Golf & Country Club is a double dog-leg, curving first left and then right directly onto a green guarded by bunkers all around.

In the play-off, Vijay Kumar, always an attacking player decided to cut across the first dog-leg over the driving range. The plan back-fired when his thinned driver shot landed him out-of-bounds. Yusuf Ali played it safe and hit the ball straight down the fairway.

Vijay's third shot (he was penalized one stroke for going out-of-bounds), found his original target but his 4-iron shot thereafter hit the right green-side bunker. Yusuf on the other hand was on the green in three. It was a lost battle and with his opponent standing over a one-foot bogey putt, Vijay, who was on the green in five, conceded the match to the Kolkatan.

What goes around comes around. In the first week of year 2004, Vijay Kumar stood with a winner's cheque in hand at the Poona Golf Club. Those present at the Hero Honda Open West clearly remember a dejected Yusuf Ali shaking hands with the winner and trudging away into the sunset.

Five weeks down the line, a direct reversal has been witnessed. However, Yusuf almost let things slip out of his hand. "I putted terribly today," said the Kolkatan who three-putted on four occasions.

Yusuf, who birdied the second to lead by five strokes at that stage, totally lost his feel, thereafter, to drop shots on the seventh, eighth, 12th, 15th and 16th. "I was worried silly when Vijay moved to one stroke behind me on the 15th," said the winner.

Vijay, who had birdied the 14th and 15th to do so tied with Yusuf after the latter bogeyed the 16th, but a bogey on the 17th by the Lucknow pro handed the lead back to the eventual winner. Vijay, then, cut across the challenging 18th hole to reach the green in two and sink a four-feet birdie putt to force the play-off. Yusuf shot a four-over 74.

"Yusuf nearly threw it away. The boy was nervous and messed up a lot of his putts. He tried to play too safe otherwise, with his kind of game, he would have beaten me by several strokes," said Vijay. "On the play-off hole, my driver let me down and at that point I knew it was curtains. I congratulate Yusuf on his win and also would add a word of praise for Shamim Khan who played like a champion today. With a bit more experience, Shamim will go places," said the runner-up who heads for the Malaysian Open on the Asian PGA Tour next week.

Vijay's round of two-under 70 contained birdies on the first, fifth, sixth, 14th, 15th and 18th, bogeys on the third, fourth, eighth and 17th and a double bogey on the seventh.

Kuldeep wins amateur title

Kuldeep Singh fired a round of ten-over 80 to capture the amateur title at 305. Earlier Ashpreet Thind withdrew due to personal reasons.

SCORES (after 72 holes): 281 Yusuf Ali(70,70,67,74), Vijay Kumar(68,71,72,70); 285 Shamim Khan(74,69,68,74), 287 Mukesh
Kumar(74,75,66,72); 289 Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia(76,71,70,72); 291 Mohd. Salim(75,75,71,70), Sanjay Kumar(74,71,74,72); 292 Rahul Ganapathy(73,70,76,73); 293 Jaiveer Virk(75,70,73,75); 294 Ranjit Singh(75,75,73,71), C Muniyappa(73,78,69,74)
Amateurs: 305 Kuldeep Singh(78,74,73,80)