Best of the Western India clash for inter-club title 23rd Grover Vineyards golf championship tees off from Saturday

The 23rd edition of the Grover Vineyards Inter-Club Golf Championship will be held at the scenic and challenging United Services Club here on February 9 and 10.

The competition is the biggest inter-club golf event that takes place in the Western India.

The two-day event is set to bring together players from four well-known golf clubs -United Services (US), Bombay Presidency Golf Club (BPGC), Willingdon Sports Club and Poona Club, the organisers said.

BPGC are the defending champions but considering that this is a difficult course, US certainly have an upper hand and they would be keen to regain the title on their home turf.

US team will be led by Satpal Singh and will be fielding four talented youngsters, namely, Keshav Mishra (handicap 3), Triman Saluja (handicap 4), Anshu Khalko (handicap 8) and Yash Yadav (handicap 10).

"We certainly have an edge considering that this is our home turf but with Poona having some of the top amateurs in the country, I feel the tournament will be an open one and anybody could win" said Satpal Singh of the US club.

The Poona Golf Club have a strong team with some of the top amateurs in the country part of their mix. Rohan Dholepatil, will be playing off a +2 handicap, the lowest seen in the tournament's history. Also, top juniors like Aarya Gadekar, Vaishnaivi Naik and Pranav Mardikar are part of their team, led by Swastik Sirsikar.

BPGC team comprises young golfers like Ahaan Nath, Virjeet Sandhu, Harsimran Sodhi, Tanmay Krishna and also experienced players in form of Amit Nigam, Ajay Patel, Parth Sanghrajka and Arjun Singh. They are led by Kuldeep Sandhu.

For Willingdon Sports Club, all eyes would be on Krishna Kilachand, Khushaal Thakersey, skipper Akshay Kilachand, Ashish Goel, Jamshed Mehta, Riaz Batliwala and Karan Mohta.

Kapil Grover, chairman of Grover Zampa Vineyards, which is conducting the tournament, said this year the format will be 6 foursomes and 6 fourballs on the first day and 9 singles and 6 fourballs on the second day.

The organisers claimed that the revised format allows more points for the second day and will keep all teams in the fray.

Wellingdon will be fielding many players with under handicap 5 and BPGC as defending champions, Pune roping in the heavyweights and US being the home team, the event is expected to produce a close finish on Sunday.