Team-Am Golf Challenge 2

Team-Am Golf Challenge 2

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
21st – 25th February 2012

We’ve seen the completion of another successful international event – the Team-Am Golf Challenge 2012, Kuala Lumpur and would first like to thank the participating teams for their enthusiastic involvement which ensured the competition was both challenging and enjoyable. This year’s endeavour of the promotion of the event in Malaysia resulted in 110 golfers – from Chandigarh, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore, and 12 non golfers. Of the 110 golfers, 80 participated directly in the Team-Am, while 30 others were part of pre-tour exercise that immediately preceded the main event..

Event sponsors were Tourism Malaysia, Ballantine’s, SOMA and ICICI Credit Cards.

The Event

The tournament package included stay at the centrally-located, recently refurbished, 5 star, Crowne Plaza Mutiara Kuala Lumpur. The location of the hotel couldn’t be better – a mere 5 minutes to Bukit Bintang and a side exit  which interconnects to the recently inaugurated KLCC Walkway, making access to the central district of shopping and commerce a simple and easy 10 minute walk away.

The team event (teams of 4) was played in the Standard/Modified Stableford Strokeplay over three rounds in some of Kuala Lumpur’s best courses – Kelab Golf Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah, Glenmarie Golf & Country Club and Kota Permai Golf & Country Club.

KELAB GOLF SULTAN ABDUL AZIZ SHAH (KGSAAS) – Designed by the 5 –time British Open Champion, Peter Thompson and a very popular course for the locals, it has only recently opened its doors to non-members. The thing to appreciate about this golf course is its exceptional “up & down” layout, which presents several challenges to the golfers, who are made to think about the ‘right club’ for every shot apart from being precise in direction. Some exceptional holes, a few of which play blind make it a course that every discerning golfer would like to play. The most notable amongst them or the signature hole is the par 5, Index 1, 493 meter Hole no 2 which has hazards from beginning to end – Out of bound on the right side, water along the left and then crossing at an angle across the fairway, which then rises sharply to an elevated green which itself has multiple tiers – it is amazing how critical the approach is with respect to the pin position!

GLENMARIE GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB – which features 36 holes – 18 of the “Garden Course” and another 18 of the Valley Course is attached to the Holiday Inn, making it a perfect place for a golf getaway – with stay and play options. The Garden Course was the venue for the 2nd round of the Team-Am Golf Challenge.  Laid out in a typical resort style course, this is the course for golfers to relax a little bit and not think too much about hazards. Or so they would be led to believe!

KOTA PERMAI GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB – a championship course designed by Ross Watson and host to the 2008 Malaysian open (winner – Arjun Atwal), Kota Permai was voted as the no. 1 golf course in Malaysia in 2011 by Golf Malaysia.  The topography of the course combined with water hazards and strategic bunkering means that even long straight drivers of the golf ball need to think twice about where they want their golf ball to come to rest.

The event was marked by tight competition throughout the three days, a result of the interesting format which took the sum of the best 3 Net Stableford points out of a team of 4 golfers on each day to determine the team’s score for the day. The top score which was the total for the 3 days determined the winning team. However, both the second and third days had an interesting twist with the Golftripz “Powerplay” being introduced.

 

The 3 Day ROUND UP…

The tournament started with the first round at  KGSAAS with a 15 hole shotgun start on the Sultan and Shah Alam Courses. Several golfers found the terrain challenging and different from what they were used to in their home courses. The going was tough, but the Delhi Eagles spearheaded by a superb 40 Net Stableford points from Manish Kochar took the honours for Round 1 with 101 Team points, 9 points ahead of SOMA- 3. The Gross Individual Honours went to Sumit Rathor of KGA, Bengaluru with 27 points.

Each day of competitive golf ended with a superb 19th hole and participants were treated to an exclusive Ballantine’s night “in the sky” at the Mega View Banquet Deck in KL Tower, where the views, needless to say, were fantastic.

The second round was held at the resort-style Garden Course of the Glenmarie Golf & Country Club with a 2 way staggered start. The lead performer for the day in Net Individual Category was Chris Chatterjee of BPGC, Mumbai with 33 points, with Ajay Kanwar of Panchkula, the best Gross Individual Performer with 27 points. The Powerplay introduced during the 2nd round immediately took effect with the non-competing local SOMA -3 Team taking the lead, followed by Coffee Club & Delhi Eagles.

Soma hosted the second evening at Ishq, one of Kuala Lumpur’s finest restaurants with a pan asian cuisine and live music along with the Ballantine’s set up. Golfers savoured the food and drink and strategized for the power play option for the next tournament round.

The last round was played at Kota Permai with a 12 hole shot-gun start at 8 am after heavy overnight showers. As all the golfers teed up on their respective holes, the threat of more thunderstorm and showers loomed large. But the gods relented almost as though the final round of the Team-Am Golf Challenge 2012, Kuala Lumpur was pre-ordained – for as soon as the last group was back in the club house, the rain and the thunderstorms were back – and in full fury.  The stage provided was enough for all the teams and there was enough drama on offer. Coffee Club from Bengaluru rode on their Powerplay performance to finish right at the top for the 2nd time in a row – All four members of their team – Avinash Deoskar, T S Devaiah, Arun Deoskar and M A Poovaiah had critical contributions to make during different stages of the event to take them to the top. Also, this is the first time a team featured a father and son combination in the form of Arun & Avinash Deoskar. Non competing SOMA – 2 came from 9th place to end at 2nd place. The thrills came from Par XLNC from Hyderabad who moved from 8th place to 3rd place, but took 2nd prize in the Team-Am Golf Challenge, thanks to a stellar performance from BVK Raju ably supported by Dayakar Reddy, Sreenath Rao and Ghouse Mohiuddin all from HGA Hyderabad. Birdie Machines made of a myriad group of golfers with 2 of them Mir Ahmed Ali Khan & G V Ramana from Hyderabad, an aspiring 16 year old Korean golfer from Baroda –Young Hyun Kim and the evergreen Chris Chatterjee from BPGC, took the 3rd prize.

At the end of the 3 days the Best Net Individual Prize was taken by “Mr. Consistent” Chris Chatterjee from BPGC, Mumbai who had net 99 points with 33 points on each of the 3 days, followed by BVK Raju of HGA, Hyderabad who finished with a total of 96 points (although he was one point behind Mr. Rabin Bashir who was in the non-competing category). In the Gross Individual Category it was Sumit Rathor one of the long known champion golfers from KGA Bengaluru who finished with a total of 75 points over 3 days followed by

M A Poovaiah also of Bengaluru with 72 points taking the top & 2nd prizes respectively in the Gross Individual Category.

The grand finale was the awards ceremony and gala dinner at Windows on KL, a banquet setting on the 30th floor of the Crowne Plaza, which was graced by the chief guest Dato’ Haji Azizan Noordin, Acting Director General, Tourism Malaysia and other senior dignitaries, Mr.Zulkifli Sayed, Director, Industrial Development Division, Malaysia and Mr.Manoharan Periasamy, Director, Tourism Malaysia India.  The evening lasted a while with guests indulging in music, dance and a very popular karaoke.

For event pictures, please click on the links. You can also download the pictures if you wish to do so.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/golftripz/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10150352052721661

Our congratulations to all the winners! and we look forward to more of you joining us going forward. Please look out for some exciting events that we will update you on soon.

Team Results

WINNING TEAM: COFFEE CLUB, BENGALURU
AVINASH DEOSKAR
ARUN DEOSKAR
T.S.DEVAIAH
M.A.POOVAIAH
RUNNER UP TEAM: PAR XLNC, HYDERABAD
V.SREENATH RAO
DAYAKAR REDDY
BVK RAJU
GHOUS MOHIUDDIN
SECOND RUNNER UP TEAM: BIRDIE MACHINES
CHRIS CHATTERJEE, MUMBAI
YOUNG HYUN KIM, BARODA
AHMED ALI KHAN, HYDERABAD
GV RAMANA, HYDERABAD

Individual Results

Categories Winner Runner up
Individual Gross Stableford SUMIT RATHOR M A POOVAIAH
Individual Net Stableford CHRIS CHATTERJEE BVK RAJU

Other Results

Prizes KGSAAS GLENMARIE G & CC KOTA PERMAI G & CC
Closest to Pin RAJENDRA PRASAD VASU MERUGU SUMIT RATHOR
Longest Drive NITIN BHANAGAY M A POOVAIAH L DARSHAN