Tour Insider: Ajeetesh Sandhu completed a memorable title defence at the PGTI Golconda Masters with a sparkling 63

Q. Entering today’s round, did you reastically think you had a chance with a deficit of 5 shots?

A. Honestly, with the way I had played the last three rounds, I felt I had a chance coming in to today. Deep down I knew that if I played well I could pull it off. So I’m really happy to have gone out there an executed a great round and it’s a special feeling.

Q. You didn’t exactly come out all guns blazing. It was a slow start and despite that you produced a great round. Tell us more about it.

A. I actually bogeyed three and was at 2 under for the tournament after three. I missed a short one on the first and then hit a bad approach on the second, Then I found the water on the third and made bogey so it sure felt like a mountainous task at that point. But then I went on a run with birdies on 4, 6, 7, eagle on 8 and a birdie on 10. To close with three birdies on 15, 16 and 17 gave me a chance.

Q. How does this year’s event compare to last year’s week? There’s quite a gap in the scores compared to last year, what was so different this week?

A. The scores were much lower last year round for some reason. The greens were faster and a little bit different this week and the wind was obviously gusting. But today, I knew it was my day and the putts dropped thankfully.

Q. You seem to have a love afair with Hyderabad? How good is this golf course?

A. Hyderabad is a special place for me obviously and HGC is turning out to be one of my favourite courses. I love this golf course and look forward to coming back to this course at every opportunity presented. It’s a great layout that suits my eye. So much heritage surrounding this track and I love it out here.

Q. There was quite a bit of a lay-off between the end of the round and the play-off. How did you feel in the break and what was going on inside your mind?

I was quite relaxed during the break. I thought I had done my job. You can’t do much after you’ve handed in the card. I thought the odds were against me and walking down the 17^th , I thought I was one stroke shy but it worked out in the end.

I didn’t think much about it. I came back in, had lunch and talked to a few of my friends and I was fairly relaxed about the situation

Q. Talking about the play-off, describe your frame of mind.

A. Even after Khalin had missed the green, I could have gone for the center of the green and just coasted home but that’s not the way I play so I went for it and hit a great shot.

Q. It’s a great start for your season, what sort of a bearing does it have on your goals moving on with the season?

Anytime that you win, it doesn’t matter. A win is a win even if it’s at the start, middle or at the end of the season. I had a lot of expectation of myself this week as I had done really well here last season. Not only here but I had a really consistent season last year all around. I played well last week too but didn’t finish off well so was looking to definitely make amends this week.

I think it was scripted (haha).

Q. How much Golf do you hope to play in India? We know you have status on the Japanese tour, how much of you will we see?

A. fair amounts, I’m playing next week in Bangladesh and Kolkatta. I’m still gonna play here as much as I can as this is my home tour.

I have conditional status in Japan, I’ll be playing on the Challenge tour too so I’ll be playing a fair amount over there in the summer.

Q. Coming down the stretch today, those great memories from last year must have started kicking in. Describe how it feels when those good memories take over and push you on?

A. Coming down the stetch, I felt really good with all those great memories from my win here last year. After my eagle on 8, I just had a gut feeling about today and felt today might be one of those rare days. Winning in golf is a rare thing so that gut feeling is seldom wrong. Today was my day, I guess.