Chandigarh’s Bhavkaran Singh (Cat. A), Gurgaon’s Aman Sawhney (Cat. B) and Mumbai-based Rajesh Natarajan (Cat. C) emerged victorious at the MercedesTrophy National Final in Pune on April 6, 2018.
L-R: MercedesTrophy National Final 2018 winners — Mumbai’s Rajesh Natarajan, Bhavkaran Singh of Chandigarh and Delhi’s Aman Sawhney
The trio scorched the Oxford Golf Resort greens to qualify for the World Final. The MercedesTrophy, which had commenced in Pune on January 4, travelled across 12 cities before returning to Pune for the National Final.
An aerial view of Oxford Golf Resort, Pune
The final witnessed 46 golfers battling for a spot in the World Final to be held in Stuttgart, Germany. The finalists participated in three categories, Cat. A (Handicap 1-9), Cat. B (10-17) and Cat. C (18-24). The scoring pattern for the National Final was modified stableford against 3/4th handicap. Cat. A winner Bhavkaran Singh scored 41 points, Cat. B winner Aman Sawhney scored 35 and Cat. C winner Rajesh Natarajan scored 44. Aman Taragi from Mumbai, Dinesh Gogna from Chandigarh and Hyderabad’s Akram Mehdi finished runners-up in Category A, B and C respectively.
Roland Folger (MD, Mercedes-Benz India) addresses the National Finalists at the Center Of Excellence
Prior to the National Final, Mercedes-Benz India organised a welcome dinner and a factory visit, for the participants to experience the production and assembly of Mercedes-Benz cars, along with an S-Class off-road drive experience. These initiatives helped the finalists interact with each other and have a good time before the Final. Also, to become familiar with the course conditions, a practice round was held a day prior to the National Final for the participants to spend some time on the greens, study the course and plan their strategy.
The Straightest Drive Grand Lucky Draw was won by Rohit Mittal of Chandigarh. As part of the reward, Mittal will travel to the British Open Championship in July and get a chance to play the Royal Birkdale course the day following the oldest Major, as a guest of Mercedes-Benz India.
Roland Folger presents a cheque to Kapil Dev
(L) on behalf of Laureus Foundation and Havovi Wadia (C) of Magic Bus
The noble initiative taken by Mercedes-Benz India and the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation to raise funds for educating and empowering the lives of underprivileged kids saw total proceeds of INR 60 lakh.
While INR 30 lakh was donated by MercedesTrophy participants, the remaining amount was matched by Mercedes-Benz India.
More than 3,000 golfers participated in the MercedesTrophy this year over a span of 91 days.
(Read more in the May issue of Golf Digest India. Download here.)