Indians fail to impress their fans at the Avantha Masters – Golf News
Despite Indians being called as favourites for the Avantha Masters, not a single player from India managed to place his name among the top 20 at the DLF Golf and Country Club, on Sunday, February 19, 2012.
The top-ranked Indian player on the leaderboard was Shamim Khan who earned the 22nd spot on a bright sunny day in Gurgaon, New Delhi.
Indians are always known as strong contenders at their home venues. However, this year’s event found them all falling apart. Their positions on the leaderboard slipped as the tournament progressed.
There were a total of 12 Indians who managed to make the cut, with Shamim and Anirban Lahiri (T23) as the two to place their names among the top 25 on Sunday evening.
Vijay Kumar and Shiv Kapur were listed at the 29th and 35th place, respectively.
The defending champion, SSP Chowrasia, looked completely out of form and shot his best round on the final day, two-under par 70, to tie for the 48th with Jeev Milkha Singh.
On the other hand, non-Indian players dominated all four rounds of the tournament.
The overnight leader, Jbe Kruger, maintained his third-round lead till the end of the final round, with a three-under par 69 to finish two strokes ahead of Jorge Campillo and Marcel Siem.
“I am very relieved to win for the first time,” the 25-year old said, who earned his first ever win on the European Tour.
He continued, “If you want to win you need to make putts on the final day and I did that today. It is a big relief now that I`ve won but I think I needed all those second-placed finishes to be able to appreciate it”.
“There was no pressure even when I made my only bogey of the day on the 17th,” he added.
The most interesting yet disappointing incident of the tournament was when the initial two-round leader, Peter Whiteford, got disqualified from the event.
He was forced out of the tournament because the ball moved after he addressed it on the final hole of third round.
He was about to play his third shot when he noticed the ball moving a fraction. Therefore, he asked his caddie, players around him and the camera crew of broadcasting channel for the confirmation.
All of them responded by saying the ball had not moved.
Consequently, he completed his hole and signed his normal score on the scorecard, without adding a penalty shot.
After the day finished, many viewers contacted the European Tour officials through its website raising the issue of moving ball. Therefore, the members of the Rules Committee looked into the matter for further investigation.
It was later found that the ball actually had moved and Whiteford should have entered a penalty shot in his scorecard.
Conclusively, he was informed that he was disqualified because of negligence regarding the shot he played.
Later, Whiteford stated in his defense that he was not cheating, as it all happened unintentionally.
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