By IANS
New Delhi : Even as the Indian and Pakistan teams are locked in a cricket series, there is another battle brewing, this time on the golf course.
Corporate golfers from either side will clash in the third edition of the Indo-Pak Golf ‘Dil Se’ at the sprawling DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon from Thursday.
The three-day tournament tees off with a practice round followed by the Ryder Cup format of Four-ball Better Ball format and concludes with a Singles Stableford match play format.
In the first two editions, India and Pakistan shared the honours. India won on their home turf and Pakistan did the same when it was held in Lahore.
Both captains – A.I. Khan from Pakistan and Renji Chaudhri from India were optimistic of a good performance.
“We have a strong team and our friendship ends on the first tee, only to resume on the 19th hole,” said Asad Kazmi, one of the original promoters of this unique event.
“We received a very warm welcome are enjoying the hospitality. The DLF Golf and Country Club is an excellent course and we are very eager to tee off.”
Ranjan Bhattacharya who was one of the visionaries of the Indo-Pak Golf ‘Dil Se Friendship series’ said that the main motive was to build a bridge between the two nations.
“Golf Dil Se as the name suggests is a tool used to bring two hearts together and in this case bringing two countries closer together. It’s a congregation of like-minded people with a single aim of making the bond stronger,” said Bhattacharya.
“The feed back of the previous two editions has been heartening as all the players have cherished each and every moment. And I am pretty sure this year too, all the participants will have a good time on and off the course,” he added.
Representing Pakistan will be a strong business contingent which includes the likes of Amin Butt, A.H. Zaidi, Ijaz Ahmed Zaddozai amongst others and they will be up against an Indian team comprising K.P. Singh, Siddarth Shriram, Duke Walia, Anil Rajput, P.V. Kapur, Vicky Bedi, Sharan Lakshmanan and Atul Malhotra.