Written by: Manvi Singh

 

Delhi’s Honey Baisoya ended the three-year PGTI title drought as he lifted the J&K Open title trophy at the Royal Springs Golf Course in Srinagar. 

 

 

Honey Baisoya went error-free for the second straight day to move into the joint lead at the halfway stage.

 

 

With a score of 18 under 270, Honey Baisoya had an impressive finish with the final round at 68. Honey was struggling even at the start of the season as he missed the cut at Hyderabad Golconda Masters and skipped Panchkula Players Championship but a change in iron, a 2-iron and a putter, brought the desired difference with first three-round scores of 67, 68, and 66 here.

 

Veer Ahlawat of Gurugram (67-71-70-66) recorded the second-straight runner-up finish following his show in Panchkula as he closed with 14-under 274. Aman Raj (68-71-70-66) of Patna too shot a 66 on the fourth and final day to take third place at 13-under 275.

 

“It still feels like a dream because till last week I was very low on confidence and not even sure of shooting an under-par score. So this win is all the more special. Normally I’m a very aggressive player but with the confidence not being up there I tried to play more conservatively than I usually do. I used the 2-iron a lot and struck it to perfection all week. I also didn’t make mistakes on the green like I had done in preceding events. The goal this week was to make the cut and I ended up winning. So it’s still sinking in,” said Honey after lifting the trophy.

 

 

Honey Baisoya receives the trophy from Shri Sarmad Hafeez, Secretary, Tourism & Culture, Government of Jammu & Kashmir. Also seen in the picture are Dr G N Itoo, Director, Kashmir Tourism (2nd from right), Mr Bakshi Javid Hamayun, Director - SKICC / Secretary - Royal Springs Golf Course (3rd from right) and Mr Sampath Chari, Tournament Director, PGTI (extreme left).

 

 

“I was two-under on the front-nine when Angad (Cheema) was playing really well. When he made birdie on the 10th, I was just two shots ahead and two shots mean nothing in a pressure situation in the final round. When Angad found the water on the 11th the pressure eased up for me,” said the champion who last lifted a trophy was in 2018 – the Delhi-NCR Open.

 

Delhi’s Rashid Khan, PGTI Order of Merit leader Karandeep Kochhar of Chandigarh and Delhi-based Kshitij Naveed Kaul were bunched in tied 12th at eight-under 280.

 

Udayan Mane of Pune took tied 25th place at three-under 285 while Chikkarangappa of Bengaluru, the last winner at Royal Springs Golf Course eight years ago, finished tied 32nd at one-under 287.

 

Indian golf legend Jyoti Randhawa ended the week in tied 46th at five-over 293.