Sharmila pips Vani in play-off at Hero-KGA Women’s pro golf
Bangalore, August 24: Sharmila Nicollet found her form and debutant Vani Kapoor earned a rightful place among the top women pros in the country with a splendid performance that gave the 2012 season of the Hero-WGAI Tour a great start at the season-opener at the KGA Golf Course.
Sharmila first rallied from a four-shot deficit to get into a play-off with Vani and then produced two glorious shots on the first play-off hole to emerge as the champion of the Hero-KGA tournament. Sharmila carded a second sub-par round in three days with a bogey-free two-under 70 to total one-over 217, the same as Vani (74). Sharmila was the only player to turn in two sub-par rounds.
Vani was at least 80-yards short off the tee, but hit a great second shot to land on the green, some 12 feet from the pin. But Sharmila’s second shot was less than two feet from the cup. While Vani missed her putt, Sharmila tapped in to win the title.
The KGA course officials did a magnificent job after heavy rains last night. They ensured a playable course and the players responded with a superb final round.
Nallini Singh Siwach (72) played a fine round with one birdie against one bogey for the day’s second best card and edged out seasoned Smriti Mehra (76) to third place. Smriti was fourth and another Bangalore girl, Aditi Ashok, still an amateur, carded 73 and was fifth at 225.
It was great to win again in Bangalore and at KGA, which is my home course. My coach Tarun (Sardesai) decided to come on the bag today and he told me that he wanted me to study the lines and putt. That helped my confidence and I am so glad that I did myself proud with a bogey-free round,” said Sharmila, who picked up Rs. 2,62,500 as the winner’s cheque.
“Starting the day four behind Vani, who was brilliant in her debut as a pro, my goal was to keep bogeys off the card and the birdies would come by themselves. That’s what happened. Tarun did not read a single line for me and by the end of the day, I felt very confident, as I don’t want to be dependant on someone else to read putts for me,” she added.
For Vani, it was a bitter-sweet debut. “It would have been great to start a pro career with a win, but a second-place is fine. I am happy with the way I played and I am sure I will keep learning. Sharmila was fantastic today. She made no mistakes. I wanted to close in the regulation and I know she hits the ball really long, but it did not happen for me,” said the 18-year-old Vani, who last year won a pro event, while still being an amateur.
“I had two birdies and two bogeys on front nine and Sharmila closed the lead from four to two on the first stretch. Then I suppose I tried a bit too hard and bogeyed the 14th and 15th to allow her to catch up. But hats off to Sharmila for great golf and I enjoyed playing with her.”
Sharmila birdied the first hole to set up momentum and exert pressure on Vani. She added another on seventh and then played pars for the next 11 holes. “I tried not to get frustrated with missed putts and just ensured I did not drop any shots,” said Sharmila.
Final results:
Leading scores (After three rounds):
217: Sharmila Nicollet (71-76-70); Vani Kapoor (75-68-74)
Sharmila won in first play-off hole
222: Nalini Singh Siwach (74-76-72)
224: Smriti Mehra (77-71-74)
225: Aditi Ashok (A) (74-78-73)
229: Neha Tripathi (73-78-78)
231: Shraddhanjali Singh (78-75-78)
235: Saaniya Sharma (73-79-83)
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Protest against Coalgate scam
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August 25, 2012
For protesting against the massive Coalgate scam that took place with collusion of Congress and BJP, India Against Corruption wouldgherao the houses of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP President Nitin Gadkari on August 26, 2012 (Sunday). A peaceful protest would take place at Jantar Mantar from 10am onwards followed by the gherao to demand immediate cancellation of coal block allocation and setting up of an independent Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Both the major parties – BJP and Congress – have been closely involved in this Rs 1.86 lakh coal scam, considered to one of the major scams till date. Along with BJP and Congress, CPM and BJD has also played a major role in the plunder of this natural resource.
While it is known that the Central Government allocated coal blocks to private players in an arbitrary manner even to underwear, cassette and gutka manufacturing companies, the role of various state governments in the allotment process is also highly questionable. On one hand, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who was also the Coal Minster during 2006-2009, gave away coal block at throw away prices to private companies without following a transparent competitive bidding process on the pretext that it would lead to cheaper electricity. On the other hand, heads of various state governments including former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje Scindia (BJP), Chattisgarh CM Raman Singh (BJP), Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik (BJD) and former West Bengal CM Budhadeb Bhattacharya (CPM) had written to Central Government advising against the bidding process.
Speaking on the issue Arvind Kejriwal said, “Not only centre but many state government comprising the Left, Right and Centre have colluded to plunder this country. If the total loss in this scam is estimated to be approximately 2 lakh crores, considering that there are 6 lakh villages in India, 30 lakhs were looted from each village.”
Now when the scam has come to light, Congress and BJP have colluded to stall the proceedings of the both the houses. Day before yesterday, what happened in Rajya Sabha is highly condemnable with Rajiv Shukla walking upto the Deputy Chairperson PJ Kurien and whispering to adjourn the house. Ironically, within minutes the house got adjourned. Today, for the third day both the houses were adjourned without much debate on the root cause of the issue.
While the BJP kept on demanding the resignation of PM knowing the fact that UPA was never going to let that happen. If the opposition was really worried about the scam it would have asked for an open debate in the Parliament instead of focusing on resignation of Prime Minister. The resignation of Prime Minister in no way would lead to unearthing the depth of the coalgate scam but an independent investigation certainly would. On the other hand, if the UPA was serious about getting to the bottom of the issue Rajiv Shukla instead of asking the deputy speaker to adjourn the house would have asked for a debate by ignoring the ruckus created by the opposition. Unfortunately, none of the parties raised their voice for this. Sharing his views, Kumar Vishwas said, “BJP is not interested in a debate because of its involvement in the scam. If a debate ensues, names of many BJP chief ministers who were involved in this plunder would also come out.”
Speaking on the issue Sanjay Singh said, “All parties are united on the issues of corruption. If Congress is looting the country’s resources at the Central level, states where BJP is in power is also not far behind.”
The Coalgate scam has overtaken the 2G spectrum scam which was being considered the biggest scam so far. If the Supreme Court had recently cancelled licenses of private players in 2G spectrum scam, why can’t the licenses of coal blocks be cancelled? To demand for setting up of SIT as well as cancellation of the license IAC would organise a massive protest at Jantar Mantar on August 26, 2012 from 10 am onwards, followed by the gherao of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP President Nitin Gadkari house simultaneously.
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Bangalore, August 24: Sharmila Nicollet found her form and debutant Vani Kapoor earned a rightful place among the top women pros in the country with a splendid performance that gave the 2012 season of the Hero-WGAI Tour a great start at the season-opener at the KGA Golf Course.
Sharmila first rallied from a four-shot deficit to get into a play-off with Vani and then produced two glorious shots on the first play-off hole to emerge as the champion of the Hero-KGA tournament. Sharmila carded a second sub-par round in three days with a bogey-free two-under 70 to total one-over 217, the same as Vani (74). Sharmila was the only player to turn in two sub-par rounds.
Vani was at least 80-yards short off the tee, but hit a great second shot to land on the green, some 12 feet from the pin. But Sharmila’s second shot was less than two feet from the cup. While Vani missed her putt, Sharmila tapped in to win the title.
The KGA course officials did a magnificent job after heavy rains last night. They ensured a playable course and the players responded with a superb final round.
Nallini Singh Siwach (72) played a fine round with one birdie against one bogey for the day’s second best card and edged out seasoned Smriti Mehra (76) to third place. Smriti was fourth and another Bangalore girl, Aditi Ashok, still an amateur, carded 73 and was fifth at 225.
It was great to win again in Bangalore and at KGA, which is my home course. My coach Tarun (Sardesai) decided to come on the bag today and he told me that he wanted me to study the lines and putt. That helped my confidence and I am so glad that I did myself proud with a bogey-free round,” said Sharmila, who picked up Rs. 2,62,500 as the winner’s cheque.
“Starting the day four behind Vani, who was brilliant in her debut as a pro, my goal was to keep bogeys off the card and the birdies would come by themselves. That’s what happened. Tarun did not read a single line for me and by the end of the day, I felt very confident, as I don’t want to be dependant on someone else to read putts for me,” she added.
For Vani, it was a bitter-sweet debut. “It would have been great to start a pro career with a win, but a second-place is fine. I am happy with the way I played and I am sure I will keep learning. Sharmila was fantastic today. She made no mistakes. I wanted to close in the regulation and I know she hits the ball really long, but it did not happen for me,” said the 18-year-old Vani, who last year won a pro event, while still being an amateur.
“I had two birdies and two bogeys on front nine and Sharmila closed the lead from four to two on the first stretch. Then I suppose I tried a bit too hard and bogeyed the 14th and 15th to allow her to catch up. But hats off to Sharmila for great golf and I enjoyed playing with her.”
Sharmila birdied the first hole to set up momentum and exert pressure on Vani. She added another on seventh and then played pars for the next 11 holes. “I tried not to get frustrated with missed putts and just ensured I did not drop any shots,” said Sharmila.
Final results:
Leading scores (After three rounds):
217: Sharmila Nicollet (71-76-70); Vani Kapoor (75-68-74)
Sharmila won in first play-off hole
222: Nalini Singh Siwach (74-76-72)
224: Smriti Mehra (77-71-74)
225: Aditi Ashok (A) (74-78-73)
229: Neha Tripathi (73-78-78)
231: Shraddhanjali Singh (78-75-78)
235: Saaniya Sharma (73-79-83)
Comment
Protest against Coalgate scam
Filed under: Uncategorized — Leave a comment
August 25, 2012
For protesting against the massive Coalgate scam that took place with collusion of Congress and BJP, India Against Corruption wouldgherao the houses of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP President Nitin Gadkari on August 26, 2012 (Sunday). A peaceful protest would take place at Jantar Mantar from 10am onwards followed by the gherao to demand immediate cancellation of coal block allocation and setting up of an independent Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Both the major parties – BJP and Congress – have been closely involved in this Rs 1.86 lakh coal scam, considered to one of the major scams till date. Along with BJP and Congress, CPM and BJD has also played a major role in the plunder of this natural resource.
While it is known that the Central Government allocated coal blocks to private players in an arbitrary manner even to underwear, cassette and gutka manufacturing companies, the role of various state governments in the allotment process is also highly questionable. On one hand, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who was also the Coal Minster during 2006-2009, gave away coal block at throw away prices to private companies without following a transparent competitive bidding process on the pretext that it would lead to cheaper electricity. On the other hand, heads of various state governments including former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje Scindia (BJP), Chattisgarh CM Raman Singh (BJP), Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik (BJD) and former West Bengal CM Budhadeb Bhattacharya (CPM) had written to Central Government advising against the bidding process.
Speaking on the issue Arvind Kejriwal said, “Not only centre but many state government comprising the Left, Right and Centre have colluded to plunder this country. If the total loss in this scam is estimated to be approximately 2 lakh crores, considering that there are 6 lakh villages in India, 30 lakhs were looted from each village.”
Now when the scam has come to light, Congress and BJP have colluded to stall the proceedings of the both the houses. Day before yesterday, what happened in Rajya Sabha is highly condemnable with Rajiv Shukla walking upto the Deputy Chairperson PJ Kurien and whispering to adjourn the house. Ironically, within minutes the house got adjourned. Today, for the third day both the houses were adjourned without much debate on the root cause of the issue.
While the BJP kept on demanding the resignation of PM knowing the fact that UPA was never going to let that happen. If the opposition was really worried about the scam it would have asked for an open debate in the Parliament instead of focusing on resignation of Prime Minister. The resignation of Prime Minister in no way would lead to unearthing the depth of the coalgate scam but an independent investigation certainly would. On the other hand, if the UPA was serious about getting to the bottom of the issue Rajiv Shukla instead of asking the deputy speaker to adjourn the house would have asked for a debate by ignoring the ruckus created by the opposition. Unfortunately, none of the parties raised their voice for this. Sharing his views, Kumar Vishwas said, “BJP is not interested in a debate because of its involvement in the scam. If a debate ensues, names of many BJP chief ministers who were involved in this plunder would also come out.”
Speaking on the issue Sanjay Singh said, “All parties are united on the issues of corruption. If Congress is looting the country’s resources at the Central level, states where BJP is in power is also not far behind.”
The Coalgate scam has overtaken the 2G spectrum scam which was being considered the biggest scam so far. If the Supreme Court had recently cancelled licenses of private players in 2G spectrum scam, why can’t the licenses of coal blocks be cancelled? To demand for setting up of SIT as well as cancellation of the license IAC would organise a massive protest at Jantar Mantar on August 26, 2012 from 10 am onwards, followed by the gherao of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP President Nitin Gadkari house simultaneously.
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