Former Indian seamer, Ajit Agarkar won the India Finals of BMR World Corporate Golf Challenge held at Prestige Golfshire, Bengaluru. Ajit Agarkar and his team mate Shabbir Rawjee, playing off handicaps 17 and 19 respectively, triumphed with a total of 62 stableford points. The team of Manohar Reddy and Siva Reddy from Bengaluru finished runners-up with 56 stableford points.
Over 600 corporate executives representing 300 teams competed for the coveted trophy in qualifiers held in Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The national finals saw a total of 12 teams (24 golfers) battle it out for a chance to represent corporate India at the World Finals. WCGC is the biggest international corporate golf team event worldwide involving more than 7500 corporate executives in 40 countries.
India has had an illustrious history at the WCGC and is the defending champion courtesy the pair of Shashidhar Reddy and Sonam Chugh from Hyderabad who won the 2015 World Corporate Golf Challenge in Portugal. India made its competitive debut in WCGC in 1999 and 2016 marks the 17th year of its contention at the world stage.
The four winners from Delhi-NCR who played in the national finals were – Pawan Puri and team mate Arunjit Sodhi; Deepit Singh and team mate Vedant Jhaver. Ajit Agarkar and team mate Shabbir Rawjee; Akshay Puri and team mate Tarun Bali were the four winners from Mumbai vying for the trophy at the national finals. The four finalists from Bengaluru were former cricketer from Karnataka, Sujit Somasunder and team mate Raj Arasu; Siva Reddy and team mate Manohar Reddy Baddam.
Speaking at the felicitation ceremony, Mukesh Butani, Chairman – BMR Advisors stated, ‘Many congratulations to the winning team. This is been an exhilarating final and we are glad to have associated with this prestigious tournament. I think this is a great moment for us, as a former Indian cricketer will now represent corporate India at the 22nd Annual World Corporate Golf Challenge in Cascais, Portugal. This tournament saw some of the best corporate czars vying to be triumphant at the national level, celebrating sportsmanship and healthy competition. Wishing the team of Ajit Agarkar and Shabbir Rawjee the best and hope they are able to defend the title that India presently holds.’
