Pining for that hole in one

The cool winter morning did not give any hint of the slightly muggy day that would follow as the participants at the Business Today-Honda Pro-Am Golf 2009 teed off by turns at Kolkata's Tolly Club on Friday, December 5. Although it was a working day, the city's elite golfers-from scions of true-blue business dynasties to corporate head honchos, from sprightly veterans to young turks-had turned up in full strength.

Without a shotgun start, the last team to tee off could do so only at 11 a.m. (This gave some of the early birds time to go home after their game for a shower and a change and drop in for lunch and the prizes, something only possible in Kolkata!) Among the first teams to tee off were those of Darjeeling tea planter G.P. Goenka of Duncans, whereas Aditya Khaitan, the scion of Assam tea baron B.M. Khaitan, whose flagship McLeod Russel is India's largest tea producer, was part of the last team.

The course was in good shape compared with the other greens in Kolkata. A member of rival Royal Calcutta Golf Club, which had hosted the BT-Honda Pro-Am in 2007, said rather snootily that the Tolly fairways are "catching up" but admitted that the course has its own challenges.

There was one problem: it was the first tournament this year for which the preferred lie rule was lifted. This rule is put into place during the wet season and enables a player to pick up the ball, clean it and put it back, to prevent damage to the fairway. As a result of the lifting of the preferred lie rule, scores were higher.

The winning team with a total of 103 points consisted of Aditya Khaitan, Yash Poddar, Ashish Jhunjhunwala and Vikram Jaiswal. The runners-up team with 99 points consisted of Amit Daga, Vivek Bhartia, Deepak Tandon and Vicky Kapoor. The prizes were given by Aseem Kapoor, Publishing Director of Business Today.

The runners-up got a trophy, a Greg Norman overnight bag and a bottle each of Pinky vodka. The winning team members got a trophy, a Greg Norman duffle bag and a bottle each of Whyte & Mackay whisky.

In the handicapped categories, Pawan Ghei was the winner in the 0-8 category with 39 points, Deepak Tandon the winner in the 9-16 category with 36 points and Asish Jhunjhunwala in the 17-24 category with a total of 35 points. The winners in the individual categories get an entry in the BT-Honda Pro-Am Golf early next year in Delhi, during which they will also get a free stay at the ITC hotel there.

The co-title sponsors were Business Today and Honda with ITC Welcomgroup as the associate sponsors. The prize sponsors were Sun International and South African Airways, the official liquor sponsor was Whyte & Mackay and the official magazine was Golf Digest India. Cleveland was the equipment partner. The top prize-a Honda CRV -stood parked forlornly as nobody managed the hole-in-one required to bag it.