New Delhi, Oct 3 (IANS): Christie’s Golf began their title defense with a bang, beating TeeM EDC 3-2 on the opening day of the fourth edition of the Delhi Golf Club League on Thursday. In the six-match contest, Christie’s won the opening game but conceded the next two to TeeM EDC. The fourth game was tied, however, Bikram Singh, Captain of Christie’s, teaming up with Sonaal Chaudhari, won the fifth game to level the scores.
The duo of Prem Dugal and five-time National Champion Vikramjit Singh then outplayed Sanjay Gupta and Greesh Bindra of TeeM EDC in the sixth and final game, to set up a 3-2 win for Christies. Christie’s Golf were awarded three points for their win.
Earlier, the inaugural tee shots were played jointly by the Chairman of the Tournament Committee - Col. Mohit Nasa (Retd.) and 1982 Asian Games gold medallist Lakshman Singh. The Ceremonial Gong to officially launch the tournament was sounded by Captain – DGC, Vikram Seth, Partner of the League, Vishal Chawla and Col. Mohit Nasa (Retd.).
In the next contest, between Sterling Swingers and Eagles & Birdies, Ashish Bharatram and former pro golfer Vivek Bhandari of Sterling Swingers won the opening game against Prabhat Singh and Amit Kohli.
Sterling Swingers went 2-up with a win in the second game, but Eagles & Birdies came back to win the third. Not wanting to lose their advantage, Sterling Swingers then stepped on the gas to record wins in the fourth and fifth games and with the final game tied, romped home to a 4-1 win. Sterling Swinger earned 3 points for the win.
In the third clash of the day, Twenty Fore Lions won all but one of their six games, to beat Swing K Kings 5-1. The ball was set rolling by legendary Indian cricketer Kapil Dev, who along with Jagdish Sharma, carded a win against Anuva Saurabh and Vivek Chandra of Swing K Kings.
Twenty Fore Lions went on to register wins all the way up to the fifth game when Swing K Kings pulled off their first and only win with Kanishk Khullar and Vikram Kapoor beating Anuj Nahar and Dhruv Kumar of Twenty Fore Lions. The winning team bagged three points for their effort.
In the final encounter of the day, Tee Birds took an early initiative, carding a hat-trick of wins in the first three games. Birdie Machine staged an impressive fight-back to win the fourth and fifth games but could only tie the final game. Tee Birds triumphed 3-2 to bag three points.
With 24 teams and 13 days of action to go in the round-robin stage, the field is very open and golf lovers are in for some scintillating golf. The league, being played at the historic par-72 Delhi Golf Club course, features 16 days of hard-fought golf and will conclude in a grand finale on October 26.