Record Turnout for AVT Champions Tour, Bangalore
The AVT Champions Tour, supported by the Ministry of Tourism under its ‘Incredible India’ campaign played out the second tournament of its second season at Eagleton-The Golf Resort, Bengaluru from Jan. 5th – 7th and observed a record turnout of 110 golfers from across India. Pune topped the list of cities with maximum representation with 13 players, closely followed by 11 from Delhi, 7 from Mysore and others from Mumbai, Chhattisgarh, Hyderabad, Coonoor, Coorg and Chennai .
The highlight of the event was the stellar form of defending champion David D’Souza of Bangalore who dominated the tournament the same way he did in 2019. David shot rounds of gross 73-74 (147) to win comfortably by six shots over joint runners-up Shivas Nath of Mumbai and Pramodh Kalia of Pune, who both shot matching rounds of 76 & 77 for totals of 153 .
Shivas had been looking forward to turning 50 while working on his game for the past one year in anticipation of getting back to competitive golf after a gap of 20 years.
The 2020 AVT Champions Tour season, originally scheduled to start in March 2020, was postponed due to ongoing global pandemic and returned in November at Classic Golf Resort, Gurgaon with a field of 100 entries. At ITC, the 36-hole gross stroke play event saw Delhi’s Ajai Sirohi, a member of the 2019 Indian national senior squad, pipping Kapil Dev and Arvind Khanna on the 36th hole for the overall honours.
The AVT Champions Tour, started by well-known Chennai based industrialist and golf enthusiast Dilip Thomas, Managing Director, AVT Group, was conceptualised to give a competitive platform for golfers aged 50 and above across India and since then has staged six tournaments till date.
Winners photos from the event –
Shivas Nath (Overall runner-up) with Dilip Thomas (R)
Priya Alex – Ladies Gross Overall Winner
For photos and results of the Bengaluru event, please click here – https://indiagolfweekly.com/photos/avt-champions-tour-2021-bangalore-leg
Prizes were awarded in various age groups, teams, handicap categories –