S. Chikkarangappa emerges as winner at Inter State Amateur Championship

S. Chikkarangappa emerges as winner at Inter State Amateur Championship:
17th June, Coimbatore: Bangalore’s S. Chikkarangappa capitalized on his second position at the end of Day three to card a one-under 71 on final day of Inter State Amateur Championship to lift the trophy. Chikkarangappa got a close fight from Chandigarh’s Abhijit Chadha who lost by two stroke.

Chikkarangappa played consistent the entire day as he made birdies on 5th, 13th and 17th holes to score one-under for the total of 71 (which was also the best score of the day) to clinch the trophy. 18-year-old Khalin Joshi carded three-over for the total of 304 to finish as 2nd runners up.

Title win for Chikkarangappa (77-79-72-71) and third position for Joshi (75-75-79-75) propelled Karnataka A to the team championship title for a total of 603. The runners-up team was Chandigarh with the pair of Abhijit Chadha (74-76-74-77) and H. S. Kang (79-81-73-75) for the team total of 609.

Chikkarangappa struggled big time on the first two days of the championship in Coimbatore, on a course, which played very tricky. It was only after a conversation with his mental conditioning coach Vinod Kumar that saw Chikkarangappa adopting a relaxed approach to the game. The results were so instant that despite being tied on the hole no. 16 the Karnataka –lad hit a birdie on 17thand hit the center of fairway on the last hole to take the elusive lead against Chaddha.

17-year-old Chikkarangappa said, “I wasn’t confident on the first two days about my game and whenever I was about to tee off, I used to be double minded about my approach. In fact I was standing too close to the ball, which distorted the shot’s trajectory and I very rarely hit the center of fairway. I managed to sort out my game on the third day at the driving range after taking some advices from my mental conditioning coach. I started my day very well today and when I hit a driver on left rough on the hole no. 17th, I was sure that the title is in my hands.”

The Closest to pin was given to Delhi’s Gagan Verma as he shot 11’ & 11” on hole no. 7 while Longest to drive was given to another Delhi’s lad Rahul Bajaj for the hole no. 18. Raghavender Naidu of Tamil Nadu has won the straight drive on hole 6.