Defending champion Manav Das of Ambala lived up to his top billing as he made it to a very cosmopolitan semi-final line-up at the Eveready 103rd All-India Amateur Golf Championship, the second oldest golf tournament in the world after the British Open, being played at the par-72 Royal Calcutta Golf Club, on Friday.
At the end of a grueling day, when the players had to complete both their pre-quarters and quart-final matches, top seed Manav, No 3 and champion in 2000, BG Lalithakumara of Sri Lanka, No 4 James Smith of England, and the extremely promising No 5 Matthew Kent of South Africa survived to battle it out on the penultimate day.
Manav got the better of 17-year-old Paul O'Hara of Scotland 3&1, Lalithakumara stopped the determined advance of Punjab Police recruit Balwinder Singh Mattu 4&3, Kent was stretched to the final hole by Jaideep Patwardhan of Pune before winning 2-up, while Smith disposed off the second seed South African Norman Beggs by two holes.
It was not the easiest of matches for Manav who was one-down to O'Hara after ten holes. But the No 1 amateur of the country showed his liking for the back nine of the RCGC once again as he reeled in three birdies from the 15th onwards to win the match by three and one on the 17th hole.
There were quite a few close matches in the morning pre-quarters. Promising youngster Vikrant Chopra of Delhi lost to O'Hara on the final hole, while Simarjeet Singh came from four-down against Beggs to reduce the margin to one by the 17th hole. However, the Oil India employee from Noida lost the 18th to lose 2-down.
In the Loser's Plate final, played on the Stableford format against full handicap, Royal Calcutta Golf Club captain Ashit Luthra narrowly lost by a single point to K Prabagaran of Sri Lanka. Playing to a handicap of one, Prabagaran accumulated 38 points against 37 by Luthra.
Results (quarter-final round - seedings in prefix and country in parenthesis): 1-Manav Das bt 8-Paul O'Hara (Sco) 3&1; 5-Matthew Kent (SA) bt 13-Jaideep Patwardhan 2-up; 3-BG Lalithakumara (SL) bt Balwinder Mattu 4&3; 4-James Smith (Eng) bt 2-Norman Beggs (SA) 2-up.
Pre-quarters: 1-Manav Das bt Joseph Chakola 3&2; 8-Paul O'Hara (Sco) bt 9-Vikrant Chopra 1-up; 5-Matthew Kent (SA) bt 21-Saurav Bahuguna 5&3; 13-Jaideep Patwardhan bt Vikram Rana 4&3; 3-BG Lalithakumara (SL) bt 19-Andrew Rollo (Sco) 4&2; Balwinder Mattu bt 10-CB Bhandari (Nep) 3&2; 4-James Smith (Eng) bt 7-Shahid Javed Khan (Pak) 1-up; 2-Norman Beggs (SA) bt 15-Simarjeet Singh 2-up
Loser's Plate: 1. K Prabagaran (SL) 38 points; 2. Ashit Luthra 37 pts; 3. Gaurav Ghosh 35 pts; 4. Sk Rafiq 34 pts.