U S Club lead BPGC by a point on opening day of Grover Vineyards Golf
Pune, February 17
Three-time winners and defending champions U S Club finished day one with a slender one point lead over BPGC after a neck to neck contest in the 22nd edition of the Grover Zampa Vineyard Inter-club Golf Championship, being played by rotation at the Poona Golf Club on Saturday.
USC with a cumulative 21 points holed a slight edge over over BPGC, who finished with 20 points. Willingdon Sports Club, the third team from Mumbai was placed third with 11 points, while hosts Poona Golf Club, notwithstanding the home advantage, had a dismal day as they could only muster a total of eight points.
Both US Club and BPGC produced some fine performances and the lead changed hands a couple of times. BPGC were off to a flier scoring 5.5 points while US Club stayed close with 4.5 points in the singles. US Club who are keen to win their fourth title in succession fought back in the Foursomes, picking up five points to nose ahead with 9.5 points as BPGC earned only three for 8.5 points.
In the Foursome, US Club was well-served by Wing Commander A Muzumdar and Captain Rajiv Pusalkar as they combined well to defeat the Poona Club pair of Dr V.T. Date and Ikram Khan to win 2.5 p[oints. The other US Club pair of Yash Yadav and Kapil Bhargava also came up with a good round defeating archrivals BPGC pair of Bunny Gandoak and Rahul Nigam to add a further 2.5 points to their kitty.
BPGC came up with a strong display in the Fourballs scoring 9.5 points as compared to 8.5 points by US Club to level the scores at 18-all. In the newly introduced Senior Fourballs event, US Club managed to score three points to steal a march on their rivals BPGC who were lucky to win two points. With US Club leading by a solitary point, the second day is certain to throw many more surprises and excitements as the fight for the top honours resumes.
Poona Golf who had who had lost only once at home were unable to raise the level of the game on day one, were unable to match the performance of the rival team. They will have to do something out of the box to prove their mettle on the final day tomorrow, if they want to emerge victors and keep their record intact.
Scores
USC: 21 (Singles 4.5; Foursomes: 5.0; Fourballs: 8.5; Seniors Fourballs: 3.00)
BPGC: 20 (Singles 5.5; Foursomes: 3.00; Fourballs: 9.5; Seniors Fourballs: 2.00)
WSC: 11 (Singles 2.5; Foursomes: 5.0; Fourballs: 2.5; Seniors Fourballs: 1.00)
PGC: 8 (Singles 1.00; Foursomes: 0.5; Fourballs: 6.5; Seniors Fourballs: 0.00)