The par 72 Coimbatore Golf Club hosted the third Coimbatore Open 2024, presented by KGiSL,and powered by Prima Donna. The Coimbatore Open was inaugurated on 14 August, 2024. 60 golfers from all over the country, as well as the subcontinent, participated in the tournament and put up a rigorous competition against each other.

Exemplary performance was put up by many Indian golfers, that includes Manu Gandas, Akshay Sharma, Rayne Thomas, Shaurya Bhattacharya, Sachin Baisoya, Pukhraj Singh Gill and many others. After four days round, Dubai based golfer Rayne Thomas posted a valiant total of 14 under par and emerged leader, followed by Manu Gandas, and Akshay Sharma who secured the positions of the first and the second runners up respectively, by a very narrow margin.

Thomas had an adverse onset, with two under par. He was being closely chased by Gurugram based golfer, Gandas, who started off with one under par. However, Chandigarh based golfer, Akhay Sharma retained the lead position after the first round scoring 3 under par. Sharma ended the second round with a 7 under par, tying along with Gandas, who scored the same as Sharma, securing the lead after the second round.

While Thomas’s second round was filled with adversities with a 5 under par, he boosted his performance from the third round onwards. He saved his best strategies and game plan for the penultimate and ultimate days to score a 3 under par, while his toughest competitors, Gandas and Sharma ended with a par and 1 under par respectively.

The final round was a scintillating match, where Thomas scored a 4 under par, while Gandas scored 5 under par. Sharma scored one under par. Augmenting the cumulative tally to 274, Thomas secured the winner’s position and achieved his first professional title. With this, Thomas also becomes the second person to win in his maiden PGTI performance, the first person being Thai golfer, Pariya Junhasavasdikul, who won the year end Tour Championship in 2016.

Thomas believes that his strength lay in the birdies, his aggressive shots, his college golf that he played in the United States, and the presence of his uncle, Maj. Thomas, who was his major source of support and caddied for him. He feels that his grit and strategic presence of mind, accompanied by his patience and perseverance, helped him excel in the game. He enjoyed his first time playing at the Coimbatore Golf Course, the magnificence of which, he says, deeply affected the elevation of his performance till the ultimate round.