India's largest amateur golf tourney launched

Around five thousand amateur golfers from more than 29 golf clubs, spread across 22 cities in the country will participate in the ninth edition of the McDowell Signature Club Golf Championships.

The ninth edition of the Golf Championships, scheduled to begin in the first week of October and run till December was launched in Mumbai on Tuesday. The Championships were launched in the city on Tuesday by Bollywood's youth icon Abhay Deol in the presence of Debashish Shyam, Divisional Vice President, Marketing, United Spirits Limited, by showcasing his putting skills at the venue.

The Golf Championships, the largest amateur golf championships in the country, has played a prominent role in helping propagate message of golf by taking the championship to clubs in smaller cities and towns and the results were evident in the last edition, with a club from Lucknow (Lucknow Golf Club) winning the all-India title. Continuing in the same vein, this time too, emphasis is being held on giving more prominence to regional centres, with the zonal finals scheduled in locations like Pune, Lucknow and Bhubaneshwar, steering away from the bigger cities.

The West Zone competition will involve three clubs from Mumbai -- Willingdon Sports Club, the Bombay Presidency Golf Club and the United Servicers Club, who will have to contend with the Poona Golf Club to decide the zone winners. Keeping with the principle of spreading the game to more clubs, the regional finals will be held in the newly formed Oxford Golf Resort, reputed to be the third most beautiful golf course in Asia. The Western Zone Intra-club rounds are scheduled for 16th, 23rd and 30th October, with the regional final scheduled for 9th Novrmber.

To mark the occasion, Abhay Deol said, "McDowell Signature and I share and live the spirit of the Bold and Beautiful. Partnering them is an exhilarating experience for me and together, we look forward to doing some exciting things in our own way. While golf has always been a sport for the stylish, suave, sophisticated and successful, McDowell Signature High Stakes Golf, is the kind of golf I'd like to play -- exciting, risky and bold. Signature is the kind of young brand that speaks to me and I'm proud to be the brand ambassador."

The tournament played to decide the Champion Golf Club of India and in the past has seen players like Gaganjeet Bhullar, Anirban Lahiri, Simarjeet Singh, Amit Luthra and Laxman Singh, besides celebrities like Mani Ratnam and Madhavan representing their clubs. Top professional golfers like Jyoti Randhawa too have been associated with the event as Brand Ambassadors. The tournament is played in three stages -- The Intra-Club, the Regional Finals and the All-India Finals. This year the All-India finals will be played on a never before grand scale at a picturesque locale in Chang Mai, Thailand.

The Golf Championships 2010 will be played over 18 holes in a dual format. Nine holes will be played in the Power Play Golf format, while nine holes will be played in the Stableford format.

The Golf Championships have been designed in a manner to give every club golfer a chance to excel at this highest platform, thanks to the three handicap categories. Any member of the participating club can play in the tournament as far as he or she has a valid handicap from that club. The top two players in each handicap category at the Intra-Club level are selected to represent the club at the Regional Finals Stage. The scoring for the event will be by the Stableford Points System across three handicap categories: 0-8 (Gross Stableford Points), 9-16 & 17-24 (3/4 Nett Stableford Points).