What could be better than golf, some avid golfers ask. Well, how about golf against the backdrop of the Nainital hills, on a 102-year old golf course? That’s what several prominent golfers got to enjoy this weekend as they caroused at the Express Power Golf Tournament 2005.
The Indian Express with Uttaranchal Tourism organised the tournament with the sponsors Indian Airlines, Famous Grouse, DS Group and Kingfisher. The inaugural tee-off was done by His Excellency the Governor of Uttaranchal, Sudarshan Agarwal. Presiding over the tournament was Lt Gen T.P.S. Rawat, Minister of Tourism, Government of Uttaranchal. The tournament saw lots of biggies playing as well, like Jagdip Bakshi, CEO, Contract Advertising, Sanjeev Chopra, Secretary, Industrial Development, Government of Uttaranchal and Suneeta Trivedi, Chief Postmaster General, Government of Uttaranchal.
“The best thing about golf is that it builds your character,” said Rawat over tea, “A lot is left to the individual because you play with yourself” Rawat also went on to say that this event was basically to popularise the sport in Uttaranchal and increase the scope of playing golf in Uttaranchal.
For adman Bakshi, on the other hand, golf is a way of getting his mind off his work. With a handicap of 13, he says, “It brings out the best and the worst in people. It’s a very exacting game.”
For Chopra, golf is a way of “getting in touch with nature,” while Trivedi feels that playing golf is just like life. “You have to be honest,” she tells us, “And there are all sorts of surprises in store.”
After the game, there was a grand dinner, where the Governor presided. N.P. Singh, Director, Corporate, The Indian Express gave the welcome note, where he recounted his memories of Nainital and studying there during the Independence years. Speeches were also made by Rawat, Chopra and the Governor. Later, there was a prize distribution ceremony, with not only prizes for best score (Col. S.C. Gupta), but also fun prizes, like ‘farthest distance travelled to participate’, which incidentally, Bakshi bagged, having come in from Mumbai; ‘closest to the pin’ won by S.K. Nandal with 1 foot 10 inches; ‘straightest drive’ won by Rajan Kapoor for his drive of 12 feet and a ‘ladies’ prize for Trivedi who had 38 points.
After which a live band played oldies and many people got up on stage to sing with them. Here’s to the next chapter of the tournament.
