Shamim Khan leads Silverglades to victory in Louis Philippe Cup

PGTI Order of Merit winner Shamim Khan and Rashid Khan came up with solid performances to help Silverglades Delhi lift the Rs 1.20 crore Louis Philippe Golf Cup after beating DLF Gurgaon 3-0 in Greater Noida on Sunday.

The champions, who were in deficit at the halfway stage when play was called off on Saturday due to untimely rain, excelled under clear skies on better playing conditions to take home the trophy and cash prize of Rs 36 lakh.

Shamim sealed the victory of Silverglades Delhi. He holed a chip from 10 yards off the green on the 235 yard par-three 17th hole to take a one stroke lead.

He birdied on the 10th, 12th and 17th hole to leapfrog his opponent and on the 18th hole, Shamim made a brilliant sand save from 30 yards to clinch the title for Delhi.

"This is an important win for me as it helps me carry my good form from last year into the current season. I had a very poor start to the round and was behind my opponent for a major part of the round. Nonetheless, my experience helped me claw my way back into the match," Shamim said.

The experienced golfer had a bigger task at hand, as he trailed Abhinav Lohan by two-strokes overnight.

Earlier in the day, the first match was played between DLF Gurgaon's Digvijay Singh and Silverglades Delhi. The match was poised evenly until Digvijay faltered with bogeys at the 16th and 17th hole while Himmat Rai completed the round with 9 consecutive pars to claim a two-stroke victory, putting his team one ahead.

Playing against the experienced Jyoti Randhawa, 21-year-old Rashid Khan hit four consecutive birdies from 12th to 15th hole to stage a remarkable comeback to win the match by two strokes.

However, such a result looked difficult at the start of the day with Randhawa scoring consecutive birdies in the first three holes.

"It's great to win after being three strokes behind a champion player like Jyoti Randhawa. The thought process in a team event is totally different. One cannot attack all the time as you need to keep your teammates' scores in mind and have a greater responsibility towards the team," said Rashid.

Speaking about the loss, Randhawa said, "We played really well through the tournament but Silverglades had some crucial puts in the last few holes to take the game away from us."

In the third place play-off, Navratna Ahmedabad pipped Jaypee Greens Greater Noida on sudden death after the match score was tied 1-1.

Vikrant Chopra registered a birdie on the second hole to beat Gaganjeet Bhullar to ensure that the last edition champions at least finished on the podium.

Jeev Milkha Singh-led Shubhkamna Noida finished fifth. Purvankar Bangalore came sixth, Take Chennai beat AVT Kolkata to secure the seventh and eighth position respectively in the 2013 edition of the tournament which was a played between nine cities in the stroke play format.

Dev Ellora Chandigarh had lost out in the first round only.