B.R. Raja ranked last in the 32-man field, created the biggest flutter when he ousted the top seed Ankur Chadha in the first round of the 112th Tata Steel Amateur Golf Championship of India at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club in Kolkata on Thursday.
The little known lad from Bengaluru edged out Ankur who had registered a handsome victory in the strokeplay event on Thursday.
Round One of any match play is also referred to as the graveyard day since players need to switch from playing the course to just their opponents. The transition isn’t easy and hence, there are always surprises with Thursday being no different with the top seed losing.
Other seeded players kept their slate clean to advance to the second round.
The international participants who are still in the reckoning include players like Tshendra Dorji (Bhutan), Abel Tam (Malaysia), Mohammad Sagor (Bangladesh) and Vijitha Bandara ( Sri Lanka).
Key Results
B.R. Raja beat Ankur Chadha 1-up; Pratap Atwal beat Sunit Chowrasia 1-up; Abel Tam beat Ainesh Ahluwalia 5&3; Udyan Mane beat Dhruv Sheoran 1-up; Karan Taunk beat Harimohan Singh 4 & 3; Gagan Verma beat Jasjeet Singh on 4 & 3.