CHENNAI: On Valentine’s Day, Udayan Mane gave himself a gift: a first-place finish at the PGTI Players Championship in Bengaluru. The reward was Rs 4.84 lakh. He also earned 5 world ranking points. On Monday, Mane, thanks to those points, became World No 241.
The significance? The 28-year-old is now the second-best in India in terms of rankings. If the qualifiers for the Olympics were to be decided today, Mane would be on the ticket. When the latest Tokyo Rankings are out later this week, he will be occupying the 60th and final spot. At a time when the attention has been on the likes of Rashid Khan, Shubhankar Sharma and Anirban Lahiri, how did someone who spends half his year playing on the PGTI, put himself in this position?
Mane has been one of the in-form players on the domestic circuit. Since last December, he has won three PGTI titles, gaining 19 ranking points. That’s almost 10 points more than Khan (9.12), India’s best, in the same period. Sharma and Lahiri have garnered zero in this period. It’s because while the others have played in bigger and tougher tours — Asian, European or PGA — Mane has stuck to courses he knows best. This is not meant to be a criticism. In fact, when Mane won in Bengaluru last week, he had the likes of Sharma for company.
Did he expect the two wins that has come his way in 2020? “Definitely not,” he says. “I have just learnt more about my technique recently. I know when and where to put a band aid on.” He also credits the recent returns to a change in diet. “I have more or less turned vegetarian in the off-season. I have realised the role that fitness plays. Till 2019, I was a complete carnivore. In 2020, I allow myself a fillet of fish once every two or three weeks.”
Coming back to him leapfrogging the likes of Sharma to be ranked India’s No 2, he says it happened more by accident than design. Going forward, he has more events lined up on the Asian Tour than on the PGTI. “I think I play 10 events till the end of May — six in Asia and four in PGTI.”
That’s before one takes into consideration the threat of COVID-19 (official name for coronavirus). It’s already affected a few European Tour events (Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur and Volvo China Open in Shenzhen). They were slated to be held in April but have now been postponed indefinitely. If more events get postponed or cancelled, Mane does envisage a scene where more and more Indians might play the PGTI till the Olympic cut-off. “Now that PGTI has ranking points, I can clearly see that happening.”If that happens, Mane will be ready and primed.