TAKE Solutions reaffirmed its commitment to the support of Indian professional golf with the staging of one of the biggest tournaments on the PGTI calendar in 2018.
TAKE Solutions renamed the ‘TAKE Open Golf Championship’, in its third edition, to ‘Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational 2018 Presented by TAKE Solutions’ as a gesture to honour Indian golfing legend. With a prize purse of Rs. 1.5 crore, it was the richest ever event to be staged in Chandigarh.
The week saw India’s leading golfing stars in action including the likes of Jeev Milkha Singh, Shiv Kapur, SSP Chawrasia, Jyoti Randhawa, Khalin Joshi, Ajeetesh Sandhu and Viraj Madappa, to name a few.
The tournament got off to a cracking start at the Chandigarh Golf Club as wKapur made a memorable return to Chandigarh after almost two decades by posting a seven-under-65 that equaled the course record and gave him the first round lead. Teenager Karandeep Kochhar kept local hopes alive on day two as he carded a round of two-under-70 to move into the joint halfway lead along with Bengaluru’s S Chikkarangappa, who fired the second day’s best score of six-under-66. The two were tied for the lead at eight-under-136.
At the end of a wet and overcast third day, the odds were slightly in favour of Chikkarangappa since the 25-year-old produced a four-under-68, the day’s best score for the second day in succession, to build a two-stroke lead at 12-under-204.
Chikkarangappa (70-66-68-72) came through in a cliffhanger after he ended the regulation 72 holes tied at the top along with Karandeep Kochhar (66-70-70-70) at 12-under-276.
Chikkarangappa finally clinched his 11th title with a par on the first playoff hole of the event even as Karandeep missed a par putt from two feet to the utter disbelief of the home crowd. Chikkarangappa thus ended a two-year title drought.