CHANDIGARH: Tee Birds caused a big upset and threw the qualification spots open with a stunning 5-2 win over Partee Panthers as the early leaders failed to fire and the Tee Birds combined very well to post their first win of the Havells Lloyd CGL 2023 being played here at the Chandigarh Golf Club.
In the day’s other matches, The Mulligans won their third straight match with a 4.5-2.5 result over the Punjab Aces, Swinging Samurai pipped Chandigarh Gladiators 4-3 and Captain’s 18 continued their good form with a 5-2 victory over the Golf Masters.
Partee Panthers made a number of changes to their line up and Tee Birds took full advantage of that and played some solid golf to race up the leaderboard. The Panthers started well and put up two points on the board courtesy Amarjot Singh Bedi and the pair of Bhavkaran Singh and Lt. Gen. Balvinder Singh Sachar who mopped wins. The Tee Birds in inspired form had already won the second singles game 4&3 courtesy Dr. Shobhit Ghai and the pair of Ajay Wadhwa and Muneet Jakhar followed suit with a 2 Up win and put their team in prime position as they swept the final three fourball games as well.
The Mulligans continued their unbeaten start to the league with a hard fought 4.5-2.5 win against the out of form Punjab Aces. Skipper Mivaan Singh got the Aces off with an off colour 2 and 1 win but Manan Mahajan gave The Mulligans belief with a superb win on the final hole. The see saw battle could have gone either way as three of the fourball games were halved and The Mulligans needed the pairs of Amrinder Singh & Jaskeerat Matharoo and Sultan Singh Matharoo & APS Kahai to register the full points to get ahead and share the lead in the tournament at this stage.
The Swinging Samurai caused an upset of sorts but the Homeland Chandigarh Gladiators managed to salvage enough points to share the space at the top of the leaderboard. The Gladiators will be disappointed with the singles games going against the form guide as SK Sharma & Col AD Singh registering wins for the Samurai. The Gladiators courtesy Bikramjit Singh Bhinder & Hanima Grewal, who won yet another game, and Col Narjit SIngh & Dr. Vinninder Singh Sachdev got the much needed points. Samurai captain BS Gill & Ramnik Singh Tiwana made sure the Samurai take home majority points from the match with a brilliant 4&2 win.
Captain’s 18 took their assignment against the Golf Masters seriously and cruised home to a 5-2 win without much trouble. The Golf Masters captain Amandeep Singh Bath won his game on the final hole and all other games finished before that as Rahul Aggarwal won his singles for the Captain’s 18. They then went on to dominate the fourball games as two of the pairs, YS Bains & Capt MS Bedi and Dr. Narinder Arora & Capt PK Mehta, won 4&3 while all others finished 2&1 with the Captain’s 18 winning two and losing one.