Angad Cheema coasts to four-shot win at Coal India Open 2025, makes it back-to-back titles

Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], August 8 (ANI): Chandigarh's Angad Cheema continued from where he left off at the PGTI's mid-season break. Angad, the winner of the last event in the first half of the season, made it back-to-back titles after he lifted the trophy in the first event of the season's second half, the Rs 1 crore Coal India Open 2025, played at the Kensville Golf and Country Club in Ahmedabad.
Angad Cheema (69-67-69-70) fired a two-under 70 in round four to end up with a week's total of 13-under 275. It was the 35-year-old Cheema's fourth PGTI win and second triumph of the season. Angad took home the winner's cheque worth Rs 15 lakh that lifted him from 10th to second position in the PGTI Order of Merit as his season's earnings went to Rs 55,56,726, the release said.
Noida's Amardeep Malik (69-65-72-73) signed for a one-over 73 in the final round to secure a runner-up finish. Amardeep thus climbed 27 spots to 21st position in the PGTI Order of Merit.
Delhi's Shaurya Bhattacharya (70) and Pune's Udayan Mane (71) claimed tied third place at seven-under 281.
Yuvraj Sandhu (71) of Chandigarh ended the week in fifth place at six-under 282 to continue in the lead in the PGTI's money list with his season's earnings amounting to Rs 58,67,200.
Angad Cheema, the overnight leader by one shot, built on his lead over the front-nine on Friday by accumulating four birdies in exchange for a bogey. Then on the back-nine, Angad's two long birdie conversions from a range of 15 to 25 feet saw him home despite his three dropped shots on the 12th and 17th.
Angad, who drew on his experience of playing the qualifying event of The Open this summer in the UK, said, "It was a brilliant week as I played well from start to finish and did not make many mistakes. I'd say I just ended up putting better than others. I made some long conversions in every round. I would like to give credit for my great putting this week to my caddie Khushi Ram who gave me the correct lines and speed on the greens."
"It was good fun playing alongside my close friend and roommate Amardeep in the last two rounds. We share a great equation and thus we enjoyed a lot of light-hearted banter playing in the leader group over the last two days which just eased the atmosphere. It feels great to win back-to-back and adds to my determination to play even better going forward," added Cheema, who ended an 11-year title drought last season.
Amardeep Malik, who trailed Cheema by one shot after round three, mixed three birdies with four bogeys on day four to slip out of contention.
Delhi-based amateur Rakshit Dahiya won the trophy for the best performance by an amateur after he finished tied 10th at one-under 287.
Ahmedabad's Varun Parikh tied 19th position as he closed the week with a total of one-over 289. (ANI)