GolfPlus Dec18 Digital Edition (Dec18) | Página 39

Feature
PAGES
FROM MY DIARY…
DECEMBER 18
By Brandon de Souza
t the outset, I hope
you relished the
festive season with
your near and dear
ones during Diwali
and are looking
forward
to
the
holidays at the end
of the month. It is
what truly makes
India a land of festivals; there is something
almost every month!
Coming back to golf, the Krishnapatnam
Port Golden Eagles Golf Championship is
a carnival in itself, which we witnessed at
our managed Boulder Hills Golf & Country
Club on the 10th of November and under the
dynamic leadership of C. Sasidhar, they truly
put on a show for their guests. Hyderabad is
the biggest stop on the four-city tour with 190
guests playing in a day over two sessions.
One has to see it to believe the grandness of
this showpiece event on the Indian corporate
golf calendar.
No detail is left to chance while curating
this event headed by my good friend Srinivas
Vallabhaneni and we can be delighted to put
on a spectacle as a club and management
company for the seamless conduct of the
same. Most satisfying was the way the fl eet
was managed with the present inventory
of carts lasting two rounds with almost
negligible turnaround time between the two
sessions.
Apart from the organization, top of the
line prizes, Jimmy Sax and DJ Cruz as the
entertainment and one of its kind networking
environment, the presence of celebrities
took the event cachet up a notch from other
corporate events. The day saw Kapil Dev,
Brian Lara, Mandira Bedi, Madhavan being
the showstoppers along with Panasonic
Open winner Khalin Joshi and lady pros
Ashlan Ramsay and Sharmila Nicollet with
the evening being headlined by Tammanah
Bhatia.
Chatting with Paaji and Brian took me
back to the time when we organized the
World Cup of Golfi ng Cricketers in Bangalore
in 2005. I think it was our fi rst real tryst
with celebrity golf in India and it turned out
to be a run away hit.
Big names like Kapil Dev, Ian Botham,
Dean Jones, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis,
Alistair Campbell, Chris Broad, Ian Bishop
and Jeff Dujon rubbed shoulders with their
peers in the innovative format, which was
played under lights at Karnataka Golf
Association.
Of the four days, the fi rst two days
were played as a celebrity am-am giving the
chance for the few lucky ones to spend time
with their heroes on a golf course.
Even in this day and age with push to
promote Olympic sports, the game of cricket
still remains on top and the IPL set the trend
of similar leagues across the board and golf
is no exception. While being an individual
sport, professionally it may not have found
GolfPlus
its footing, at the amateur level the Premier
Leagues have spurted up across the country
and their success is a testament to the fact that
golf at the end of the day makes ever lasting
bond like none other.
Playing an individual sport in a team
format gives a different dimension to it as
we’ve all seen with the Ryder Cup. At the
amateur level, it gives a chance to create great
camaraderie and networking over a prolonged
period of 6-12 weeks in some cases like the
Royal Premier Golf League.
The Boulder Hills Premier League will
make its debut in January 2019 with all the
fl avors of a colourful two months with team
owners, captains, auction, offi cial dinners and
parties, unique merchandise, team sessions,
playoffs and the works. It is another avenue
for corporates to take advantage of the captive
audience they are targeting and give another
leg to corporate golf in the country.
DECEMBER
2018
45