Swinging the swing

Lucky for some, the 13th Western Regional round of the Business Today-Honda Pro-Am kicked off the way it always does: to a swinging start. Febuary 2 saw past and present movers and shakers of the business world swing like never before.

Quite fittingly, the venue was the exclusive BPGC (The Bombay Presidency Golf Club), arguably the best course to play on in Mumbai but also one of the toughest in the country. With Business Today and Honda SIEL Cars India Ltd as the title sponsors, Avaya Global Connect and ITC Hotels Ltd as co-sponsors, the ball was set to roll.

Some of the big boys playing in the Business Today-Honda Pro-Am Western Region were Procter & Gamble’s Bharat Patel, Puneet Chaddha of HSBC, S.M. Trehan of Crompton Greaves, Ajay Chauhan of Parle, R. Swaminathan of Essar, Vikram Sud of Kotak Mahindra and Ashok Ganguly of ICICI OneSource, among others.

The four-leg event teed off in Bangalore and visited Kolkata before reaching Mumbai. The tournament was played in three handicap categories 0-8, 9-16 and 17-24. The scoring was, as always, on a Stableford format with handicaps reduced to three-fourths. The BPGC saw many old hands on the corporate golf circuit turn out in large numbers. In fact, several of them said they had never missed the Business Today-Honda Pro-Am since its inception 13 years ago. There was a sprinkling of new faces as well including leading young amateur golfers such as Amit Nigam and Gurbeer Bhurjee.

Talking to BT after the game, Dr Dilip Nadkarni, an orthopedic surgeon with specialisation in sportsrelated injuries and ex-doctor to the Indian cricket team, said: “It was a fantastic game, but then how could a game of golf be anything but?” He has just written a new book, titled Calm Sutra, which talks about golf as one of the best ways to de-stress and align the body’s chakras.

As usual, a brand new Honda CRV was prominently displayed at the BPGC to be won as the prize for carding a hole-in-one on Hole 6 by the first player. No one has been able to win this car so far. There were other special prizes on offer such as the Avaya Closest to Pin (Hole 2), Business Today Longest Drive (Hole 18) and the Straightest Drive (Hole 3).

The par-70 BPGC, which is going to be given a makeover soon, is one of the toughest golf courses in the country, thanks to its tricky greens. The many challenges in the shape of bunkers and water bodies fully tested the golfing skills of the participants.

The quartet of Dilip Sharma, Wing Commander S. Rao, R.K. Padmanabhan and Omkar Fotedar bagged the team event with a total of 104 points. The team of Ashish Chemburkar, Prakash Doshi, Jimmy Billimoria and Kishore Shivdasani emerged as the runners-up with 91 points.

Akshay Kilachand, winner in the 0-8 handicap category, booked his berth at the National Finals. Joining Kilachand were Dilip Sharma and Bob Sivaram, winners in the 9-16 and 17-24 categories, respectively.

The winners from each zone will travel to New Delhi to take part in the Grand Final to be held at the Classic Golf Resort on March 9, where the country’s top 20 professionals will also be seen in action. And that is one event that no golfing enthusiast should miss.