Defending Champion Christie’s Golf bow out of Lloyd DGC League

Pratap Singh Atwal led Sara Golf Code to a win against his former team Christie’s Golf.

Khel Today Bureau

New Delhi: Defending Champions Christie’s Golf bowed out of the Fourth Edition of the ‘Lloyd Delhi Golf Club League powered by Radico’ at the Delhi Golf Club today.  Christie’s who required an outright win to make it to the quarter-finals, could only manage a tie with Sara Golf Code.

The score-line of 3-3 saw Sara Golf Code who began the day at 9 points on the Group A Leaderboard as opposed to Christie’s Golf’s 7 points, cruise into the quarter-finals.  Sara Golf Code finished with 12 points to sit two points behind Group Leaders  Bliss Golfers.

The top two teams from each Group qualify for the quarter-finals.  There are four groups in all, A, B, C and D and six teams in each group.

The star of the day for Sara Golf Code was ironically Pratap Singh Atwal, who was part of the Christie’s Golf Team that won the ‘Lloyd Delhi Golf Club League powered by Radico’ in 2023.   Sara Golf Code won the opening game with Raghav Bhandari and Ranjit Singh Atwal beating the duo of Aditya Gupta and Jaiwant Berry of Christie’s Golf.  This was followed by Imran Baig and Pawan Singh, again of Sara Golf Code, getting the better of Pranav Sahai and Ronen Pawar to take Sara Golf Code to a score of two-up.  With pressure mounting on them, Christies, showed great character to fight back and win three straight games to wrest the advantage from Sara Golf Code.  It was imperative for the Defending Champions to win the final game to book a slot in the quarter-finals, but the duo of Pratap Singh Atwal and Ishan Kapur of Sara Golf Code, won their contest against Amar Bindra and Ajai Singh Sirohi 2-up, to end Christie’s knock-out aspirations.

The opening match of the day, between Eagles & Birdies and Sudhir Power, both not in contention for a knock-out berth, witnessed Eagles & Birdies win 4-2.  Sudhir Power began and ended their match with wins but Eagles & Birdies won the four games in-between to win the match.

In another match, MMG Coca-Cola beat The Pioneers, 5-1 to cruise into the quarter-finals.  At the start of the match, The Pioneers tallied 4 points on the Group B Leader-board and MMG Coca-Cola  were tied second with Royal Ranthambore Athletic Drive at 8 points on the Leader-board.  Had MMG Coca-Cola lost today, being tied with Royal Ranthambore Athletic Drive, the team with most number of individual game wins in the round-robin stage, would have progressed into the knock-out stage.  However, this win ensured a smooth entry into the quarters for MMG Coca-Cola and an unfortunate exit for Royal Ranthambore Athletic Drive.  As for today’s match, The Pioneers began with a win but MMG Coca-Cola came back to win the remaining five games.

The contest between Bharat Strikers and Tee Birds was also an exciting one.  At the start of the match, Bharat Strikers, sitting with 6 points, required a win to tie with Birdie Machine on 9 points for second place but a win for Tee Birds who tallied 8 points, would seal for them the sole second place, taking them to 11 points in all, two behind Group Leaders Sterling Swingers.  Tee Birds however pulled out their A-game and won the contest 4-2 win to book a quarter-final berth.

Twenty 4 Venture Lions started their quest with a win in the opening game against Bajaj Foundation with Rajendra Prasad and Madhu Misra of Twenty 4 Venture Lions beating Vikas Dhull and Sunil Budhiraja of Bajaj Foundation.  The next game witnessed Kapil Dev contribute like only he can, to salvage a tie.  Twenty 4 Venture Lions went on to win the next three games and. It was only in the last game of the match that Bajaj Foundation managed to win courtesy Sonny Iqbal and Arvind Sethi outplaying Situ Puri and Pavit Singh Sistani of Twenty 4 Venture Lions. Twenty 4 Venture Lions won 4-1 and bagged 3 crucial points.

The opening match of the day between Ardee Masters and Baale Golf ended in a tie. Baale asserted themselves early on, with Gurshant Singh and Prashant Kaul beating the duo of Gopal Kapoor and Puneet Kashyap of Ardee Masters to go one up. This was followed by another win for Baale Golf in the next game where the father-son duo of Chetan and Aditya Singh beating Giriraj Meena and Rishi Nanda of Ardee.   Ardee came back with a win in the third game but Baale went on to win the fourth  and looked favourites to win the match.  Ardee Masters however, had other ideas and went on to win the final two games to level scores.  The last game was won by the Ardee Owner Jaideep Sangwan and Raghav Puri in what seemed like poetic justice. The teams tied at a score-line of 3-3.

The second match of the day was a one-sided affair with TeeM EDC decimating Shiva 5-1.  Shiva started in excellent fashion with a win in the opening game with Lt. Gen. IS Singh and Vibhakar Shastri  of Shiva beating the team of Commodore Amit Bhandari and Mohan Soi. TeeM EDC however pulled themselves together to win the next five games. TeeM EDC pocketed 3 points for their win.

In the final game of the day between Deutsche Motoren and Swing K Kings, Deutsche Motoren won 3-2 on the final hole of the day.  The teams were tied going into the final hole.

The League is being played on a four-ball better ball Matchplay Format and over two stages – a Round Robin stage followed by a Knock-out stage. During each playoff match between two teams in the Round Robin stage, each team will field 6 pairs (12 players). One pair from each team will play against a pair from the other team in the above-mentioned format, with all the players playing off 90% of their original handicaps. The teams will get points for their wins. The 24 teams have been divided into 4 groups. After the Round Robin stage, during which the teams from one group will compete against each other. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Knock-out stage starting with the Quarter-finals. In the Knock-out Stage the matches between two teams will be contested by seven  pairs (14 players). The Finals, as mentioned earlier, will be played on 26^th October, 2024.