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On a day off from business, top corporates were busy strategizing play at the Karnataka Golf Association, as they all fought for a coveted spot to represent India at the World Golfers Championships at Durban, South Africa.T here was a surprise waiting for golfers at Hole 1 as Arjuna Awardee Harmeet Kahlon warmed them up while testing their accuracy in a straightest drive competition.
After an intense day of golf in the 11-15 category, Sandeep Kulhalli, Vice President Titan Industries was as precise as ‘time’ tieing with Commercial Tax Director, Government of Karnataka, Dr. Siddaramaiah at a nett score of 36 points. The tie was eventually decided on a countback, with Kulahalli edging the Doctor out by a single point calculated on the modified Stableford Format.
Bringing his negotiating skills from the weekdays, KV Rao, Director, Deutshce Bank negotiated one of Asia’s best golf courses ending as winner in the 16-20 category with a fantastic nett score of 41 points. Continuing on with the ‘banking’ streak was Gaurav Sahgal, Regional Director HSBC who ended as runner up in the 21-24 category with a nett score of 37 points. He did not go home disappointed as he won the team prize along with N P Thimmaiah with a combined nett score of 74 points.
An elated Gaurav Sahgal had this to say on his victory, “Given the heavy rain last night and the overcast conditions, the course was surprisingly fast and which really helped me in my short game. I was definitely disappointed to have narrowly missed out on winning the individual prize in my category but this award has really made up for that”.
While Shekhar Vishwanathan, Vice Chairman, Toyota Kirolskar and Sandeep Singh, Managing Director, Toyota Kirolskar both had respectable scores in the category 21-24 with the former carding 26 nett points and the latter carding 29 nett points. Just a whisker ahead of them was Kasai Toshiyuki, President of EPSON who played with the confidence of being a former participant at the World Golfers Championship in 2012 and ended his day with a nett score of 31 points, in the 6-10 category.
Also adding this stellar field of “white collared” golfers was Raj Arasu, MD, GE Aviation who won the WMU closest to the pin competition on the 13th hole. As the heavens remained closed on the penultimate day at the “garden city” one can only sit and fathom as to a wonderful Sunday of golf it is going to be on the final day of the Toyota Karnataka Golf Festival.
Consolidated Final Scores
Category 6-10
Winner: Sumedh Gangal (10): 34 points
Runner-up: Manik Bahri (9): 32 points
Category 11-15
Winner: Sandeep Kulhalli (13): 36 points
Runner-up: Dr. Siddaramaiah (15): 36 points
Category 16-20
Winner: KV Rao (20): 41 points
Runner-up: Rishi Kshettry (17): 39 points
Category 21-24
Winner: Srikant Gonuguntla (24): 40 points
Runner-Up: Gaurav Sahgal (24): 37 points
