A RESILIENT AND DOMINANT ‘ WILLINGDON SPORTS CLUB ’ WON THE GROVER VINEYARDS INTER-CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 7 YEARS nd just like that ‘ 25 years ’ of this event have gone by and what a journey it has been .

Over the past two and a half decades if there is anything that has glued the entire Western India Club Golf fraternity together it ’ s the ‘ Grover Vineyards Inter-club Golf Championship ’. Several long lasting friendships , camaraderie unlike any sporting event , rivalries that have grown old together and several glasses of wine are all symbolic with this very special golf event .

This year one with so much uncertainty the possibility of hosting the event was looking uncertain till a few months before . Then slowly along with lots of caution , planning , support and enthusiasm all the four participating clubs ( Bombay Presidency Golf Club , Willingdon Sports Club , United Services Club and Poona Golf Club ) along with the tournament sponsors the event was planned and executed successfully . The host club Willingdon Sports club with an extremely efficient and handson golf committee provided every support needed to run the event safely as well as being a very welcome host to the other visiting teams for their practice rounds and preparation . The event was held on the 13th and 14th of February 2021 .

The Willingdon Sports Club was anything but hospitable when it came to competition time and they led a near flawless and dominant campaign . Over the last 5-6 years they have narrowly missed out on winning the event including losing in a playoff a couple years ago . This year their preparation , planning and

execution were on-point resulting in an excellent victory after a long 7 year gap . Dinesh Vaswani was the only golfer in the competition to get a maximum of 5 points over two days . Their inter-club Captain was Mr Pradip Patel and the club Captain is Mr Akshay Kilachand . They jointly collected the winning trophy .

Defending champions Bombay Presidency Golf Club got off to a slow start on Day 1 . They were lying in fourth place after day 1 . A more comprehensive showing on Day 2 by the team ensured they finished in runner-up spot . Their team was led by their Golf Captain Mr . Shashank Sandhu .

The United Services club had won this event when the tournament was last held at the Willingdon Sports Club beating the host club by a narrow half point margin . This year they got off to a good start of Day1 but failed to capitalize and finished in 3rd position . The team was led by Brig . Neelkamal Brar .

In fourth place was the Poona Golf Club that

Winners with Caddies

Club News

had many super stars in their team including plus handicappers such as former India No1 Rohan Dholepatil and top star Pranav Mardikar . They were the lowest average team handicap and maybe that didn ’ t do them any favours on a short and tricky layout such as the Willingdon Sports Club . Poona Club always plays the game with the highest value system and were winners of the ‘ Fair Play Award ’. Their team was led by Mr Ikram Khan .

A special thank you to all the sponsors / partners who have stood by the event for the last many years ( Ameya Logistics , Ador Fontec , Rajesh Batra , Titleist ( Zaverchand Sports ), Evolution Sport , Golf Plus Monthly ), Kingfisher Ultra . Next year the Grover Inter-club Championship will be held at the Poona Golf Club .

RESULTS :

Tournament hosts Mr Kapil Grover , Mrs Jayashree Grover & Neha Grover

Captains with replicas as a momento 25 years Winning Team 2021 Winning Club Captain & Interclub Captain

GolfPlus MARCH 2021 51