Mercedes-Benz India is set to bring its annual MercedesTrophy Golf tournament to the DLF Golf and Country club in Gurugram. The course, designed by the legendary Gary Player, will host the tenth leg of this year’s tournament between February 21-February 23, 2017. The three-day leg coming after the ninth Chandigarh leg will see six golfers (two from each day), make it to the National Finals to be held at Pune’s Oxford Golf Resort from March 15-17, 2017.
The Mercedes Trophy tournament is in its 17th edition in India and will feature 25 days of qualifiers in all engaging about 2500 golfers, making it the largest participative golf tournament in the country.
Globally, Mercedes Trophy 2017 bears witness to participation of approximately 60,000 golfers from across 50 countries battling it out for the top prize, making it one of the world’s largest sporting events.
The Gurugram leg is expected to see more than 350 golfers participate. The tournament so far has seen qualification of 27 golfers from the nine legs held in Pune, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Chennai, Kolkata and Chandigarh respectively.
The 41 winners from the qualifying rounds being held in 12 cities – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Gurgaon & New Delhi, will then compete at the National Finals at the Oxford Golf Resort, Pune from 15th March – 17th March, 2017.
Three Winners from the National Finals will further progress to the Mercedes Trophy World Finals – Stuttgart, Germany in September 2017, to compete against country-specific edition winners from all over the world.
The format of play will be Double Peoria with the Delhi amateurs vying for one coveted spot at the National Final. The unique format of adjusting handicaps of the players each day enables more golfers to have a chance of qualifying for the National Finals.
One winner will travel to the British Open Championship and will get a chance to play the Royal Birkdale Championship course the day following the tournament.
The ‘Best Maintained Car’ winners will compete for a wild card entry to the India National Final. In order to introduce beginners to the game, Mercedes-Benz will host golf clinics at each round of the tournament, which will be conducted by instructors from the legendary David Leadbetter Golf Academy.
