Glittering start to Royal Ranthambore BT Golf 2024-2025 season at Jaypee Greens

There was glitz, there was glamour. There were icons from the worlds of business and sports, and some serious competition too at the packed opening leg of Royal Ranthambore BT Golf’s silver jubilee season at the Jaypee Greens Golf Course in Greater Noida on Saturday.

World Cup 1983 winning captain Kapil Dev led a parade of champions at the tournament co-presented by IndianOil with Bandhan Mutual Fund as investment partner, Luxury Escapades as luxury partner and driven by Morris Garages, including fellow cricketers Murali Kartik and Suresh Raina besides two-time golf Olympian Diksha Dagar, while area Member of Parliament Dr Mahesh Sharma was the chief guest at the glittering prize presentation that followed the golf.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sharma himself an avid 12-handicap golfer once (‘I was a keen golfer also and my usual tee-off time used to be 6.15 am and that was seven days a week, almost 365 days a year whatever the weather, till other work and political compulsions took up my time”) told the gathering, “This really is a beautiful game. It is a meditating game as Suresh Raina said, and as a doctor, I can vouch for that.”

Dr Sharma took the opportunity to share a few anecdotes from his playing days and had the large gathering in splits while recalling how they had to resort to some gamesmanship to get the better of one his playing partners. “The only way to beat Manjeet was to spoil his mood. All we had to do was to irritate him and the end he would break his clubs and leave.”

Turning out on the day were MG Motors CCO Gaurav Gupta, Silverglades chairman Pradeep Jain and chief executive Anubhav Jain, Wave Group managing director Rajiv Gupta, and Siddharth Sangwan, MD and CEO of Lightspeed India.

Some of the other bigwigs participating were William Grants India CEO Sachin Mehta, Grant Thornton Bharat chief executive Vishesh C. Chandiok, Colliers India MD Ravi Shankar Singh, Ambrish Shahi of the World Bank, and diplomats including Australian High Commissioner Philip Green and his colleague Julian Storm, Masni Eriza (Indonesia), Gen Kevin Moonsamy (South Africa), besides Manveer Singhvi, IFS, from the Ministry of External Affairs.

In his interaction with BT Golf, Kapil Dev, who is now also president of the Professional Golf Tour of India, noted, “I think if I had played golf while still playing cricket, I would have had a couple of thousand runs more. This is a very unique game where your concentration increases a hundred per cent.

“It’s a challenge to yourself and not to anybody else. You play well, you feel happy. If you play badly there is no one else to blame. It is entirely on yourself.”

Speaking as president of one of Asia’s largest professional tour, Kapil added, “I think corporate golf is very good and I feel corporates must get involved more with the game. Youngsters work very hard to get into the game and we must do more to support them.

“Golf is an Olympic sport now and as PGTI president I feel people must come into the sport including the media. This equally true for men’s and women’s golf, you have to work with the game, that is more important and I feel that if the corporates come in and help out, everyone will benefit, the women, the youngsters and professionals. 

“They used to say golf is an old people’s game. That is not so any longer. Passion is the most important thing, today players can make a life out of sports not like in our time when we used to play for free. Now you have professional cricketers, and it’s the same with golf. They are earning much better than five years back, but it’s still nothing compared to other sports.”

In the season-opening competition, Punam Chawla took top honours in the ladies competition with an impressive 36 points, while Dr Amit Vij with 36 points won the men’s 0 to 14 handicap ahead of Capt. Sanjay Chauhan, who took second place on the basis of a better back nine score. 

In the men’s 15 to 24 handicap section, Anubhav Jain clocked up 38 points to edge out runner-up Saurabh Kalia on 37 points. In the individual spot prizes, Girraj Meena nailed his drive on hole 3 to win the Bandhan longest drive prize, Pawan Sharma won the Bandhan closest to pin competition by hitting to within six feet on hole 8 and Rajeev Sharma topped the Bandhan straight drive contest on hole 13.

Former India spinner Murali Kartik nailed his tee shot to within a foot for the Radico closest to pin prize on hole 5, Gunjan Bijlani’s drive was two inches off the line for the Radico straight drive honours on hole 7 and Ravi Shankar Singh clocked 258 yards for the Radico longest drive on hole 10.

A well-attended event for tyro golfers was the golf clinic which has been growing in polularity since it was launched last season.

Results

Bandhan Longest Drive (hole 3): Girraj Meena, 298 yards
Bandhan Closest to Pin (hole 8): Pawan Sharma, 6 feet
Bandhan Straight Drive (hole 13): Rajeev Sharma
Radico Closest to Pin (hole 5): Murali Kartik, 1 foot
Radico Straight Drive (hole 7): Gunjan Bijlani, 2 inches
Radico Longest Drive (hole 10): Ravi Shankar Singh, 258 yards
Ladies winner: Punam Chawla (36 points)
Men’s 0-14 handicap: Winner – Dr Amit Vij (36 points); Runner-up – Capt. Sanjay Chauhan (35 points, better back nine)
Men’s 15-24 handicap: Winner – Anubhav Jain (38 points); Runner-up – Saurabh Kalia (37 points)