Praba's putting proves decisive

By Lal Gunasekera

GOLF: The putting of Sri Lanka's Kandasamy Prabagaran proved decisive in the final as he became the fourth Sri Lankan to win the All-India Amateur Golf Championship on the par 72 Course of the Coimbotore Golf Club.

The previous winners from Sri Lanka in India were the late maestro Pin Fernando, Nandasena Perera and Lalith Kumara.

Prabagaran was seeded 11th after the stroke play qualifying round played superbly throughout the match-play section of the event to reach the final. He had many tough matches against more fancied and experienced players from not only India, but also from South Africa whose Ruan Botha, is ranked in the top 50 of the world amateur rankings.

The dusky lad from Nuwara Eliya met India's Simarjeet Singh, who had won the Sri Lanka amateur title for three consecutive years. The Indian had never reached the final of the All-India Championships earlier.

In the 36-Hole final, Prabagaran prevailed at the 35th when he went 2-up after both players missed the fairway and only made bogey. Prabagaran had nine Birdies in the match.

Prabagaran himself won the Sri Lanka amateur title in 2003, and in recent years has toured India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Singapore and even represented Sri Lanka at the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar last year (2006).