CHANDIGARH: Amandeep Joal has done it again! One of Chandigarh’s top golfing youngsters is back home after pocketing yet another crown the AllIndia Amateur Golf Championship title in Delhi earlier this week.
And being crowned AllIndia champion is no mean achievement. Ina field of 135, Johl beat Taimur Hassan of Pakistan in the quarterfinals and dethroned defending champion K.N. Perera of Sri Lanka in the semifinals. The two rounds threw up Johl’s toughest opposition but he out stroked the ‘foreign challengers to meet India’s Uttam Mundy in a grueling 36 hole final.
The fight for the crown was a close affair, although both Indians committed several errors and could not display the kind of keen golf they had shown in the earlier rounds. Johl won on the 23rd hole with a score of five and four a close finish.
The tournament, started in 1892, is the most prestigious one for Indian amateurs. The 89th championship, which Johl won, had four entries from Pakistan, two from Sri Lanka and two from Holland.
Flushed with the success of his latest outing Johl, who turns 21 on January 19, is but a step away from turning professional. Before, he takes the final plunge however, there is the 1990 Asiad and the youngster has set his sights on the gold.
Of course there are a few mundane obstacles to cross before even that. Exams for instance. The national amateur champion has put his golf bag in the closet and opened tones of scientific understanding. Johl is a seventh semester student at the Punjab Engineering College here.
Well Johl here’s wishing you a hole in one, as a golfer might call a “first class” drive.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 15, 1989
