Volvo Masters of Asia - Bangkok Dec. 11, 2003

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 11:34 pm

Although golf is an individual sport (occasionally a team sport) I hope that an Indian golfer will win the Volvo Masters and the other Indian golfers also keep Zhang from finishing in the top two spots.

Today's tee times have Arjun Atwal and Arjun Singh paired together.

Go Indian golfers and Daniel.

Post by **jayakris** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 11:48 pm

Go Indian golfers and Daniel

Hey, Daniel *is* an Indian golfer! .. Anybody with (even partial) Indian ethnicity, who grew up in India, speaks an Indian language and learned golf in India, is by all means an Indian golfer, regardless of where his birthplace is!

He is quite unique -- Are there any other foreign-born Indians who learned the sport in India and became world-class?

Jay

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 2:30 am

Jay, I consider Daniel as much an Indian golfer as you do but I made the distinction because Sweden is written next to his name at the Volvo Masters website and I wanted to be sure that I included him in rooting for my favorite golfers and others understood who I was rooting for. Perhaps I should have said, "Go Indian golfers including Daniel" and then somebody would have been upset because I pointed him out. And if I had said, "Go Indian golfers" then someone may have been upset for not including Daniel because he is Indo-Swedish. Some days you just cannot win

.

I should have just written the names of all the golfers I am rooting for.

ajay · Post by **ajay** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 4:24 am

Bhushan is one of the biggest fan of Daniel. No doubt about it.

This does not look to be Arjun Atwal's tournament. He finished 5 over for today and 7 over for the tournament. Looks like after a high it is difficult for him to motivate himself again. Careful, once you are off guard, it is easy to slip into depths and make it difficult to come back. It happened with Arjun last year when he won the first EPGA title. After that he missed the cut in the next tournament (need to verify it) and suddenly his form deserted him for long time and he started doubting himself. But to his credit, he came out of it strongly.

I hope it is just one bad tournament. Anyway, once he starts playing regular PGA, he just can't relax so it should be ok and he'll be back.

Post by **jayakris** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 6:08 am

Of course. I should have been more clear in what I wrote. I was only statiung what I knew Bhushan already knew. I wrote it only to tell him that we all here wouldn't complain at all if he said "go Indian golfers" ands would know Daniel was included. He didn't have to worry;he said, he was concerned about not being misunderstood. Actually I feel we don't have to take the trouble to make any distinction from now on. Just count him in by default. If anybody wonders if we are counting him in, we will anser, but otherwise DC is included among "Indian golfers".

I certainly knew that Bhushan was a big DC fan .. I was just saying it for all of us.

Jay

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 6:34 am

Thanks Ajay and a Jay

. It looks like that the forum members are on the same page as far as Daniel is concerned.

Arjun Atwal is having all sorts of problems on the 18th hole. He had a double bogey today after a quadruple bogey yesterday. Zhang is making a move and now it is up to the other Indian golfers to rally around Arjun and win one for him.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 7:36 am

It is now up to Harmeet, Amandeep and Jyoti to deny Zhang the Order of Merit.

Harmeet Kahlon 69, 70, 66 (-8)
Lian Zhang 71, 69, 65 (-8)
Amandeep Johl 69, 69, still on the course
Jyoti Randhawa 67, 67, still on the course
Daniel Chopra 72, 71, 69 (-1)
Arjun Singh 71, 73, 73 (+4)
Sandeep Grewal (UK) 74, 71, 72 (+4)
Arjun Atwal 71, 73, 76 (+7)

Thongchai Jaidee is at -11 and trying to regroup himself after his disaster at the PGA qualifying tournament. Can Purdy and Thongchai also finish ahead of Zhang?

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 6:51 pm

I am not surprised that Arjun had a letdown. It is to be expected after qualifyin for PGA. I am sure he will be ready in time for the PGA.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 9:07 pm

Results after the third day:

1 Ted PURDY USA 62 66 71 -14
1 LIN Keng-chi TPE 65 69 65 -14
3 Thammanoon SRIROT THA 68 67 65 -13
3 Thongchai JAIDEE THA 71 64 65 -13
7 Amandeep JOHL IND 69 69 66 -9
7 Jyoti RANDHAWA IND 67 67 70 -9
16 Harmeet KAHLON IND 69 70 66 -8
16 ZHANG Lian-wei CHN 71 69 65 -8
44 Daniel CHOPRA SWE 72 71 69 -1
57 Arjun SINGH IND 71 73 73 +4
57 Sandeep GREWAL ENG 74 71 72 +4
62 Arjun ATWAL IND 71 73 76 +7

Amandeep and Jyoti are leading the Indian charge with Harmeet on their heels. Can Arjun Atwal win the Order of Merit? He will need help from his friends!

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 2:07 am

Arjun Atwal had said before the tournament that he is going to make charge on the last day. I don't doubt him. Let us see.

Post by **Dhruv** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 2:15 pm

Final Results
1 Thongchai JAIDEE THA 71 64 65 65 -19
2 LIN Keng-chi TPE 65 69 65 67 -18
3 Jyoti RANDHAWA IND 67 67 70 65 -15
4 Thammanoon SRIROT THA 68 67 65 72 -12
7 Harmeet KAHLON IND 69 70 66 68 -11
13 Amandeep JOHL IND 69 69 66 71 -9
32 ZHANG Lian-wei CHN 71 69 65 74 -5
39 Daniel CHOPRA SWE 72 71 69 69 -3
51 Arjun SINGH IND 71 73 73 69 +2
57 Arjun ATWAL IND 71 73 76 68 +4
61 Sandeep GREWAL ENG 74 71 72 73 +6

All the Indian golfers did reasonably well today shooting rounds of under par and most of them improved their position.

Arjun won the Order of Merit title as a result of his great season to go along with the USPGA card for next year. All in all a great year for Arjun.

ajay · Post by **ajay** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 5:55 pm

Great job by Jyoti on the last day. He made a strong bid to win the title but he was held by equally determined Thonchai Jaidee.

Jyoti started the day with 5 strokes behind the leader and 4strokes behind the eventual winner Jaidee. Unlike two previous days (birdie at 1st) Jyoti started the day quitely with two straight pars. He then got two consecutive birdies at 3rd and 4th, but it was undone by a double bogey at 5th. But Jyoti wasn't to be held back as a got a string of three birdies at 6th, 7th and 8th and closed out the front nine with a par and 3 under for the day. On to the back nine and Jyoti again started with two straight pars. For the fourth time in the tournament Jyoti birdies the par 5 12th, but immediately gave away the strke with a bogey on 13th. After another par at 14th, he birdied the 15th and then closed out with another couple of birdies at 17th and 18th.

With 9 birdies( 50% of holes) a double bogey and a bogey, Jyoti finished the day 6 under and 15 under for the tournament. But his great effort for the title was checked by equally great effort of 6 under for the day by Jaidee that included 8 birdies and 2 bogies. Jaidee finished with 19 under for the tournament and a winner's check of $90,000. Jaidee performance is impressive as he redeemed himself after a great disappointment at PGA qualifier finals. Remember, he stayed back in USA for long time (after WGC) just for the PGA qualifiers and he had a great performance on the second leg of the qualifiers where Arjun just scaped through. To come back from this disappointment and after a 6 day tiring PGA qualifier and a mad rush to Bangkok and to win this title is an impressive performance.

Jyoti had a great tournament and so did some other Indians. Harmeet Khalon made it to top 10 (7th with 11 under) and Amandeep Johl just missed the top 10 (13th with 9 under).

For Zhang, it was too much of a pressure to win the OOM from Arjun Atwal(as Jyoti predicted two weeks back) . Arjun Atwal although nothing to remember from this tournament itself, but ended the APGA season on a high note with the Order of Merit Title. Arjun, who had been in running for the OOM title for quiet few years, finally makes it to the top of Asian Golf.

ajay · Post by **ajay** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 6:00 pm

The Volvo Masters marks the end of the glorious year for Indian Golf.
Bhushan, time to write a summary of the year. Arjun's Carlsberg Malaysian Open and Hero Honda victory, Jyoti's Suntory Open victory, Jyoti and Arjun playing at WGC event. Jyoti's impressive run on Japan tour and Daniel's superb run on NW until the last day of NW season ending event. India represented by duo Digvijay Singh/Gaurav Ghei, qualifying and playing for the World Cup Championship. To cap it all, Daniel and Arjun's dream come true qualification to the coveted PGA tour through an outstanding performance in the 6 day rigorous PGA qualifer. And finally, Arjun Atwal succeding Jyoti Randhawa to win the Asia's top spot, the Order of Merit title. Did I miss out anything here.

The year ends with greater promises and dreams for 2004.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 12:57 am

Congratulations to all the Indian golfers because they did well under the circumstances at the Volvo Masters of Asia. It will be my pleasure to add the achievements of the golfers in the History of Indian Golf thread. Thanks Ajay.