NEW DELHI: Delhi Golf Club's leading amateur golfers will showcase their skills in the inaugural edition of the ‘Delhi Golf Club League’ (DGCL), which will be played at the par-72 facility from October 14-31.
It will be among the first few sporting events happening in the country post the Covid-19 pandemic. The league, a brainchild of the Golf Committee of India’s second oldest golf course, will feature a total of 18 teams, with each team comprising of 18 players supported by one mentor and one coach, announced Lt Gen Balbir Sandhu, chairman of the tournament committee. The tournament will be played in a four-ball, better-ball match-play format.
The league will be played in two formats – a round-robin stage followed by the knockouts. DGC will throw open its gates for the general public to watch the golfing action from the knockout stage onwards. During the play-off match between two teams, each side will field 7 pairs (14 players). One pair from each team will play against a pair from the other team in a four-ball, better-ball match-play format with all the players playing off 75 percent of their original handicaps. The teams will get points for their wins. The 18 teams have been divided into four groups. After the round-robin stage, the two teams from each group will qualify for the knockouts starting with the quarterfinals. The finals will be played on October 31. Every franchise spent around Rs 5 lakh in buying a team.
Some of the prominent names in the golfing world are involved with the conduct of the league League at different levels, including four Arjuna award winners in Shiv Kapur, Ali Sher, Nonita Lal Qureshi and Amit Luthra. Additionally, Gaurav Ghei - the first ever Indian golfer to qualify for the Open Championship ’97, Vivek Bhandari - winner of the Honda-Siel PGA Championship ’97, Arjun Singh - winner of the Wills Masters ’98, Asian Tour regulars Chirag Kumar, Naman Dawar and Amandeep Johl, leading Ladies Tour professional including Meher Atwal and Ayesha Kapur, top ladies Amateur Gauri Monga and top golf coaches – Brandon de Souza, Jasjit Singh and Ajai Gupta, among others, have been lending their support to the league.
Strict Covid protocols will be followed during the conduct of the league, informed Sandhu.
“Golf leagues have been conducted successfully at leading clubs in India and we have taken into account best practices to create a structure which will help the entire golfing ecosystem. The mentoring programme of the league has some of the finest golfers in India sharing their knowledge and expertise with all the members, a fantastic learning opportunity for the members, especially the juniors,” said the captain of DGC, Major Gen AP Dere (Retd).
“DGC as an Institution has given India 14 Arjuna awardees in golf and numerous champions, something we are proud of. This legacy and vision to continue nurturing champions drives us to create and support events which enable talent development and the DGC league is a step in that direction” was President DGC Manjit Singh’s message during the press meet.
Ghei, who took the golfing world by storm with his chip-in victory in the Gadgil Western Masters in 1995, said, “I have been a product of the DGC system and feel very privileged to have had an opportunity to learn my golf here. And now this opportunity to give back to the club, its members and juniors some of the knowledge I have gained over the years.”
