December 23rd 2016, Gurgaon, India: The Fourth edition of the Golf Foundation Invitational was played at the Jack Nicklaus designed Classic Golf and Country Club’s golf course on the 17th of December. A host of innovations greeted the participants through the day, and the evening saw a sterling impromptu performance by the Chief Guest for the Prize Distribution, Boman Irani.

Hosted with an objective to create awareness about the Foundation’s efforts, enroll future support and also raise money for their current wards, which includes some of the brightest talent in India, the tournament saw a quality turnout and as expected, the competition was close. What was heartening to see was the performance of the Golf Foundation’s protégés who played along with the invitees and won several prizes.

The first pair to inaugurate the tournament – Shubham Jaglan with Jt. Sec. Ministry of Tourism, Mr. Suman Billa

Some of the Foundation's protégés with the Chief Guest, Boman Irani

Scored on an individual Stableford format with prizes for two different handicap categories, the winner in the 15-24 handicap category was RS Rawal who scored 42 points while Rahul Banerji finished Runner Up with 34 points.

Overall winner Aditya Sood (R) receiving the trophy

In the 0 – 14 handicap category, a Golf Foundation protégé Aditya Sood won the overall prize with 40 points while another talented junior Raghav Chug finished Runner up with 39 points.

The Gross Stableford winner was also a Golf Foundation protégé, Arjun Prasad, who recently finished Runner up in the All India Amateur Championships. He scored 36 Gross Stableford points. Young Hitashee Bakshi, also from the Foundation, won the Best Lady golfer prize with a score of 34 points.

The Golf Foundation, which is a Registered Charitable Society was started by Amit Luthra and other like minded golfers who wanted to give back to the game through promoting untapped talent in the country and players like Ashok Kumar, Rashid Khan, Chikkarangappa and the current junior world Champion in his age category, the prodigy Shubham Jaglan are all from the Golf Foundation’s stables.

The tournament received tremendous support from several sponsors and The Classic Golf and Country Club hosted the event without any charge. Several sponsors came forth to support the tournament through cash and product support. The list of generous sponsors included DLF Ltd, Delhi Golf Club, SRF Ltd, Lotus Herbals, Max India, STL Fastners, Jet Airways, Frazer & Haws, Colflax Fluid Handling, JCB, EXL, Havells, T&T motors, Sara Group, Crowne Plaza, Coca Cola, Sonata Software, Satya Paul, Kai, Hughes, Shaw Art Palace, Le Meridien, Shantanu and Nikhil, Spark Advertising, 3 Below, Vaish, Pernod Ricard, Scottish High School, Bonhomia, Spruce Shave Club, Ashish Soni, Smile Studio, JW Marriott, The Wine company, Amandeep Johl Golf Academy, Khelfie.com, Online Media Partner – 4moles.com and Print Media partner – Golf Plus, in addition to the PGTI and the IGU.

The golfers' experience, interwoven with several interesting activities and skill prizes very well received by all and was managed by Digraj Golf Inc. It began with an inauguration by Jt Secretary Ministry of Tourism Mr. Suman Billa and Minister Economic and Development, Japan Embassy, Mr. Kenko Sone, who were joined by Golf Foundation proteges Shubham Jaglan and Arjun Prasad. And during the prize distribution, Boman Irani, besides a beautiful rendition of two songs, also shared inspiring anecdotes from his life and gave some invaluable tips to the protégés and present guests on values that matter.

Through this report we request and also invite our readers to come forth on how they could support the Foundation and help India produce World Champions. The Foundation has recently been approved by the Department of Corporate Affairs as a credible implementation agency for CSR Donations. It also has FCRA clearance and in case you would like to make a donation, your contributions are entitled to an 80 G certificate. Every bit helps and there is proof of concept that the process employed by the Foundation works. Champions are emerging and we need many more. Your support will certainly help.

Please do visit www.golffoundation.in for more details.