Club it away: Highlights from BT Golf's Bengaluru edition

On the outskirts of India’s Silicon City are the manicured fairways of the Prestige Golfshire Club, where close to a hundred golfers converged on a pleasantly balmy Saturday morning on March 11 for the fourth leg of this year’s Business Today Golf tournament presented by Royal Ranthambore. The emerald greens of the picturesque golf course—which has multiple lakes and trees adorned with colourful flowers, and with birds chirping away—provided the perfect conditions for the crème de la crème of Bengaluru’s business and corporate golfing talent to spend the morning in a camaraderie-filled game of golf.

As the day progressed, competition heated up with the whirr of the little white ball; the participants showcased their golfing chops with the club and the putter, and put in some spirited performances. Finally, Jayanthi G. Ravi emerged as the winner in the ladies category, while Loy Halder and Kedarnath Mudda won the trophy in the 0-14 and 15-24 handicap categories, respectively, at the invite-only tournament, co-presented by Qatar Airways, Indian Oil XP 100, with Morris Garages as mobility partner, Rajasthan Tourism as tourism partner and O3+ as the event’s gifting partner.

Dodda Ganesh, former Indian cricketer and now senior Air India official, was the day’s chief guest; he also expressed his desire to play at the event next time. Ganesh, who had dabbled in golf during a county cricket stint in the UK during the 1990s, later spent some quality time at the driving nets and putting green in trying to sharpen his skills. Some good practice indeed!

Several other dignitaries, including Varun Berry, Executive Vice Chairman and MD of Britannia Industries; Ajay Kanwal, Managing Director & CEO of Jana Small Finance Bank; and Srikanth Doranadula, Group Vice President at Oracle, were also seen exhibiting their skills.

Speaking to BT later, Jayanthi said the initiative was a welcome break from the crunch of the corporate world, and hoped that the years ahead would see more participants competing at the tournament. “It was a lot of fun out there, but I wish there were more women participating. It would have made the competition more interesting on this challenging course,” Jayanthi, who is a Partner in LEEP Services, said.

Among the winners were Sudarshan Maney, Managing Director of Sudarshan Cargo Pvt. Ltd, for straightest drive; Sundarraj Mahadevan, Co-founder and Director of Collabrant Incubators, for closest to pin; and Abhijeet Singh, Vice President of Medindia, for the longest drive. The next leg of the BT Golf event will be held in Kolkata at the Tollygunge Club.