KOLKATA, India – Dec. 21, 2004 – Chirag Kumar, who registered a resounding win at the Royal Challenge RCGC Cup only last week, failed to match up to the experience of veteran Sanjeev Mehra, who beat him on the 19th hole on the first match-play round of the Goodricke East India Amateur Golf Championship 2004, being played at the par-72 Royal Calcutta Golf Club here on Tuesday.

The event is the second leg on the Eastern Swing of the Royal Challenge Indian Golf Tour. Among the other upset wins of the day was Akshay Butta’s 3 & 2 win over former India No. 1 amateur Manav Das and Pankaj Sethi’s win over Vikram Rana at a score-line of 1-up. In another contest Gaurav P Singh beat Jasjeet Singh 2-up.

Meanwhile, another former India no. 1 amateur Keshav Misra fought tooth and nail to beat Nitin Malik on the 19th hole, while, Girish Virk staged an outstanding fight-back to come from behind and beat Aditya Khaitan on the 21st hole.

Among the other key players, top-seed and the two-day stroke play competition winner Ranjit Singh beat Samaresh Sardar 3 & 2 while Indian team regular Vikrant Chopra beat Pawan Kumar 3 & 1. Thrice Sri Lankan Amateur winner Simarjeet Singh beat SK Rafik 3 & 2.

Chirag Kumar would have been extremely high on confidence when he teed it up against Sanjeev Mehra on Tuesday. After all, the golfer had registered a memorable triumph on this very golf course last week. Golf is however a fickle friend as Chirag was to discover. Matchplay golf is all about percentage play and this was where Sanjeev Mehra scored.

Chirag on his part birdied the 18th hole to neutralize Mehra’s one-up lead but the latter birdied the 19th to win. The Aditya Khaitan - Girish Virk battle was tilted in the former’s favour till the 12th hole. Khaitan led 2-up at that stage.

However, Virk fought back to take a one-up lead on the 17th. He however missed a two-feet birdie putt on the 18th to bring about a play-off. On the 19th, the first play-off hole,
Khaitan missed a short birdie putt to tie. Then Virk did the same on the following hole, but on the 21st, Khaitan’s par putt stopped two inches short of the pin. Virk won with a par. The Keshav Misra, Nitin Mittal contest nearly saw Misra’s exit on the 18th. On that hole, Mittal missed an easy birdie to tie. Misra, an old hand at pressure play however, birdied the 19th to move into the pre-quarter-finals.

Scores: Ranjit Singh bt. Samaresh Sardar 3&2; HS Kang bt. Samarth Shergill 2-up; Navtez Singh bt. Mandeo Pathania 4&3; Gaurav P Singh bt. Jasjeet Singh 2-up; Vikrant Chopra bt. Pawan Kumar 3&1; L Silvadurai bt. S Karthikeya 2&1; AS Lehal bt. Gaurav Ghosh 5&4; Shaurya Singh bt. Sundeep Verma 4&3; Simarjeet Singh bt. SK Rafik 3&2; Sanjeev Mehra bt. Chirag Kumar (on the 19th hole); Joseph Chakola bt. Sikander Ali 3&1; Amardip Malik bt. Balwinder S Mattu 5&4; Akshay Butta bt. Manav Das 3&2; Girish Virk bt. Aditya Khaitan (on the 21st hole); Keshav Misra bt. Nitin Mittal (on the 19th hole); Pankaj Sethi bt. Vikram Rana 1-up.