Grin and bear it, they probably told him. There is very little else one can do when at the end of an exhausting, near-eight hour final you are left in the lurch because of a freakish chip-in that snatched away your shot at a maiden title. A little less than six months after that, Arshdeep Tiwana finally cracked the code and won his first title on the amateur circuit at the Southern India Amateur in Bangalore. And to do it from five shots back just made it a little more memorable.
Angad Cheema and Karan Vasudeva, one would have thought, were likely to engage each other in a battle to emerge as the victor but both the players fell away on the final day. Tough reads on the greens and tricky pin positions weren't really going to come to their help either. The winning score coming at seven-over isn't something to gloat about but everyone's misery is the only thing that players could draw solace from. The seven-over mirrored Abhishek Jha's efforts at the Western India Amateur, on slick, glass-like greens. For Tiwana though, it was the win that was important, not the winning total.
The Eastern India would have been a better first-win to cherish, right? Tiwana says Au contraire. "In matchplay you are only competing aginst one player and your performance is relative. But playing on a strokeplay format, you are competing against the entire field over four days which makes the win special," he tells us.
It was at the Noida Open Amateur, where he had charged ahead with a low first-round card but returned high numbers through the remaining rounds. When congratulated over a top-ten finish, he was visibly peeved. The goals had been set and it was only a win which mattered and nothing else. He blames it on that final in Royal. "All I knew after that day was that only a first-place finish would be of consequence and I don't want to look at a position finish."
Ironically, it is his position, on the Order of Merit list after the Southern India, that is of great importance to him right now. "I have set targets for myself and I know I will be playing the q-school, whenever it takes place next. But before that I want to qualify to play for India. Everyone wants that," he insists, laying out his goals for the remaining season.
1 comments:
Tiger Woods is ready for the 2009 US Open, but is the weather? It's pouring rain at Bethpage Black, the American golf course that Tiger Woods is defending his remarkable 2008 US Open win on. Woods set out on his US ... If you want to follow Tiger Woods on the US Open 2009 leaderboard you can visit Sports Illustrated.
You can watch US Open Golf Championship 2009 here:us open golf tv schedule-online video
By: Anonymous on June 20, 2009 at 9:42 PM
Post a Comment