Local hero Pappan ousts Chowrasia from SRF Matchplay

New Delhi, Apr 12 (UNI) Local favourite Pappan, considered a master of match-play golf, lived up to his reputation to pull the rug from under the feet of the talented Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia at a score-line of 2-up in the second round of the Rs 12-lakh SRF All-India Matchplay Championship here today In other upsets, 23rd seed Ali Sher beat tenth seeded Ranjit Singh 2-up while 19th seed Vinod Kumar beat 14th seed Uttam Singh Mundy 2&1.

Yesterday's surprise packet 50th seed Monish Bindra was shown the door by a birdie-happy 28th seeded Vivek Bhandari.

All the other top seeds progressed to third round.

Pappan had only one game plan -- to play steady golf and wait for his opponent to attack and err. He let loose a splurge of birdies from the fifth to the seventh to win all three holes and go three-up.

Chowrasia used a three-wood, two-iron combo, to birdie the eighth and aided by Pappan's three-putt on the ninth reduced the deficit to one.

On the 14th, Pappan hit a drive, six-iron combo and then spun his lob-wedge into the hole to eagle. Chowraisa, at best, could birdie.

On the 17th, Cowrasia sank a 15-feet putt to birdie and win.

At one-up and one to go, Pappan birdied the 18th to win 2-up.

The Digvijay-Basad contest was also close. The golfers opened their accounts with birdies but Digvijay pulled ahead with a birdie on the third. He went two-up when Basad dropped a shot on the fourth but the Kolkatan came back when Digvijay bogeyed the sixth.

Basad, however, bogeyed the ninth with a three-putt to move into the back nine two-down to Digvijay. After the two golfers halved with bogeys on the tenth, Digvijay went three-up with a birdie on the 11th. Basad birdied to win the 14th and Digvijay misread his putt to bogey and lose the 16th. One up with two to go and Digvijay birdied the 17th with a superb 15 feet putt to book a place in the third round.

Mukesh Kumar, in his battle against Mohd Salim, birdied the third to pull one ahead and went two-up on the very next hole after his Kolkatan opponent found the left bushes to bogey.

Salim, however, sank a tough 20-feet downhill putt to win the fifth with a birdie. A series of tied holes followed. On the back-nine, Salim put a foot on the accelerator to win the tenth and 11th with birdies.

Two parred holes later, Mukesh attacked to eagle the 14th with a driver, six-iron combo. Salim lost despite a birdie.

Thereafter, Mukesh birdied the 15th and 16th and with the two golfers halving the 17th with pars, Mukesh won at 2&1.

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