Veteran Gaurav Ghei became the first Indian golfer to win an Asian Tour title this year, while compatriot Jyoti Randhawa came tantalizingly close to his maiden European Tour glory in Madrid.
Ghei was consistency personified and the Delhi golfer player four steady rounds to walk away with the Beijing Open with a two-stroke lead in the $500,000 dollar event.
After his 1995 triumph in the Gadgil Masters, Ghei had an 11-year title drought, which finally came to end with his triumph in last year’s Mercuries Masters title in Taiwan. Fortunately, the gap between his second and third titles was much shorter, eight months to be precise.
Asked if the revival in his form had anything to do with the birth of his son Raghav couple of years back, an amused Ghei said
May be you can say that. Also a lot of people, including my sponsors, N Srinivasan, have stuck with me during the periods I was not playing well.
Incidentally, Randhawa too struck form after the recent birth of his first child.
Randhawa almost became the third Indian to win in the European tour with his scintillating show in the Euro Open de Espana, or Spanish Open. His rounds of
65, 66, 67 took him well near the title before South African Charl Schwartzel pipped the Indian to the post, finishing just one stroke ahead.
Randhawa, who has six Asian Tour and one Japan Tour titles under his belt, feels winning on the European Tour is just a matter of time.
Randhawa said
I have come close to winning on European Tour quite a few times, hopefully it will happen soon.
