Amateur golfer Aman Raj aims to finish on a high
LEADER AMAN RAJ plans to end the year on a high note when he tees off at the 115th Amateur Golf Championship of India to be held at Classic Golf Resort in Gurgaon from Tuesday.
The 20-year-old Patna-born golfer enjoyed a great season on the domestic circuit where he won four titles and had three top-10 finishes out of six tournaments that he played overseas. He also became the lone Indian player to be selected for the 2015 R&A Scholars tournament at St Andrews Golf Course, Scotland.
“It's always important to finish well in golf. It may be a hole, a round, a tournament or a year; it is always crucial to end well. It gives momentum for next year. This is my prime goal at the Classic Golf Resort," he said in a release.
Other top players who will present their challenge includes Noida’s Samarth Dwivedi (No.2) who was part of the Indian contingent at the Incheon Asian Games last year, Kolkata’s Viraj Madappa, winner of 2015 Taiwan Amateur Championship, in-form Bengaluru’s Jaibir Singh and Chandigarh’s Yuvraj Sandhu who came first and second at the IGU Northern India amateur championship, last week.
Delhi’s veteran Gagan Verma and Noida’s Simarjeet Singh will also be looking at converting their experience into favourable results.
Among the foreign participants, Bangladesh has a fairly large participation. Shafique, Md Shah Alam, Yousuf Reza, Afnan Mahmud and Nazmul Hasan will put up a strong competition for Indian golfers.
Sri Lankan duo Sisira Kumara and M. Arumugam, Thailand’s Napong Sriparsit and Sangchai Kaewcharweon, Nepal’s Tanka Karki, Arun Tamang and Prithvi Malia and Abdul Majid and Imran Ali from Afghanistan are also expected to be at their top notch on Indian soil.
The six-day championship is played over both stroke-play and match play format. The 36 holes stroke-play event will act as a qualifying round to select the 32 players, who then play the knockout stage over four rounds. The tournament will conclude on December 20 with the 36-hole final.
