Sultans upset Panthers, Captain’s 18 march into golf league semifinals

Sultans of Swing scripted a win by pipping joint defending champions Partee Panthers 4-3 in a thrilling quarterfinal encounter of the Chandigarh Golf League at The Chandigarh Golf Club. They will face The Mulligans, who beat Swinging Samurai 4.5-2.5, in the semifinals.

In other quarterfinals, Punjab Aces toppled Fairway Comets. The Aces will now face two time defending champions Captain’s 18, who beat top seeds Hunting Hawks 5.5-1.5.

The Sultans came into the match having never progressed to the semis and it was looking like the Panthers had their number at the halfway stage. They trailed 1-6 but all games were tight with a difference of a hole or two. Feroz Singh Garewal and Viraj Gadhoke played out a tie after Viraj had led most of their singles game. Raghav Bhandari of Panthers put on a display of ball striking and won his game 5-4 comfortably. Skipper Bikram Bhinder brought parity to the match after he combined with Himmat Mahal to get a point for the Sultans. After hole in one, Aarman Singh Kler paired with Simarinder Singh and won 5-4 in the anchor game, the match took a decisive turn towards the Sultans. Three games went to the wire with Rabbin Saini-Col PS Mangat and Dilsher Sukhija-Sampat Singh pairs recording narrow 1-Up wins to put their team through.

Earlier, Aces beat the 2023 finalists Fairway Comets after surviving a late scare in their quest. The 2022 runners-up almost made heavy weather of their big lead and it took the fourth four ball pair of Akshay Verma and Col AS Sekhon to complete the win. The singles games saw Mivaan Singh play out a tie against the Asia Pacific Seniors Champion Bobby Sandhu with Rao Birender Sidhu taking a 4-2 win. Kanwaljit Singh Gill and Admiral Sunil Lanba kept the Comets in the game with a 4-3 win with Varun Rao and Mehar Atwal making Aces favourites again. It came down to the middle fourball games which went the distance and Jaskirat Dulet and Rupinder Singh ensured there were no more hiccups as the Aces closed out the match.

Mulligans’ third consecutive semi

The Mulligans, who were seeded second, lived up to their billing and progressed to the semifinals for the third consecutive year. They wrapped up their singles games courtesy Himmat Singh (WDP) & Angad Sangha, who both won 5-4. Ajay Kanwar won 2-Up with Harjeet Singh to put The Mulligans one point away from victory. Deshvir Singh and Hitesh Arora pulled a point back for Samurai with a 2-1 win as did Gurpreet Singh Khehra and Col BS Rangi in the anchor game. The winning point came from Sultan Singh Matharoo and Amrinder Singh’s 3-1 win.

After looking vulnerable in the past couple of rounds, Captain’s 18 demonstrated why they have had the rolling trophy for the past two years. They displayed dominance in the singles with HS Kang winning 5-3 and Randeep Singh winning 3-2. In the four ball games, Col AS Bajwa and Saurabh Nagpal won 5-4 with two pairs BS Mundh-YS Bains and Rajiv Moudgil-BS Sidhu winning 2-1 to put the result beyond doubt. The Hunting Hawks, having amassed 30 points in the round robin stage and took the top seed, won their only game courtesy Aryan Singh Kamboj & Rohit Singh Dagar. The anchor game was halved.

The semis will be played on October 23 with the first match between Mulligans and Sultans and the second semi between Captain’s 18 and Aces. Meanwhile, Aarman Singh Kler of Panthers had a hole in one on the 8th hole today.