Shillong, May 2: Local lad Kevin Khyriem scored his maiden victory on the Milky Moo Championship Indian Golf Union East Zone Feeder & Sub Junior Tour as he clinched the Milky Moo Shillong Open here at the scenic Par 70 Shillong Golf Club.
After yesterday’s washout, it all went down to today’s round and Khyriem did not disappoint his supporters as he carded 84 to edge the trio of Subham Adak, city mate Lakshya Bajaj and Rakshik Basu by one stroke on a dramatic day of golf.
The event was hosted in collaboration with the Meghalaya Golf Promoters’ Society (MGPS).
Khyriem began his round with a bogey on the first hole and followed it up with two pars to take an early lead but Bajaj joined him at the top after four holes. However, the next few holes saw Basu set the pace with some steady golf to take the lead by one over Bajaj and two over Khyriem and Adak.
Khyriem slipped even further behind over the next three holes, but a string of pars then brought the local boy back into contention, tied with Basu and Bajaj with one hole to play.
An assured bogey for Khyriem against doubles for the co-leaders gave him a dramatic win over the chasing trio.
Adak took second place with Bajaj in third on countback, but both of them went into a playoff with Basu for the Category B championship. Basu duly won this with Adak and Bajaj taking home the runner-up and second runner-up trophies.
Category C was won by Guwahati’s Maitreya Milan Saikia, with Mohit Balasubramaniam in second and Ahaan Gupta third.
In Category D Ribhav Verma was the victor, with Aditya Khaitan second and Aashrut Almal third.
Hredaan Raj Bihani of Kolkata beat the local lads in Category E as he won by seven clear strokes over Ryan Pargal Lyngdoh and the girls’ events saw Yaalisai Verma take home the overall title and local lasses Divyanshi Agarwal and Srivani Agarwal winning the Category and C titles respectively.
Dignitaries present on the final day were Health Minister AL Hek, Meghalaya State Olympic Association Working President John Kharshiing and golf officials AH Scott Lyngdoh, Rahul Bajaj, Batkupar Synrem and Daniel Jyrwa.
The Shillong Open was the third event of the seventh season of the Milky Moo Championship. Play had to be cut short yesterday because of heavy rain and lightning.
The event saw the participation of more than 30 young golf hopefuls from Shillong, Kolkata, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Nagaland, etc.
(Photos contributed. The featured photo is of Kevin Khyriem (centre) receiving his prize from AH Scott Lyngdoh)
