New Delhi, 11-07-2020

Leading Golf Pros Get a First Feel of the Newly Designed Delhi Golf Club Course – Play a Round to Help Raise Funds for Covid-19 Relief

The two teams - Gaganjeet Bhullar & Kapil Dev and Shubhankar Sharma & Murali Kartik - ended the match tied and thus shared the trophy at the event supported by PGTI

• European and Asian Tour Pros Shubhankar Sharma and Gaganjeet Bhullar played their first round of Golf at the newly re-designed Delhi Golf Club (DGC) course
• Card Rounds of -5 at the DGC in New Delhi
• Cricket Legend Kapil Dev and former India cricketer Murali Kartik completed the four-ball with efforts of 76 each
• This one-of-a-kind charity event helped to raise Rs 50 lacs to aid Covid relief efforts by NGO Magic Bus India.
• Chennai based industrialist and golf enthusiast Dilip Thomas, is the lead donor behind the effort.

New Delhi, July 11, 2020: Shubhankar Sharma, 2018 Asian Tour Order of Merit winner, and Gaganjeet Bhullar, who has the maximum titles by any Indian player on the Asian Tour with nine-titles, got their first feel of the newly renovated Delhi Golf Club (DGC) course on Saturday. They played a private round of Golf at the iconic venue and were joined alongside by cricket legend Kapil Dev and former India cricketer Murali Kartik. The match ended level at a score of -5. Gaganjeet Bhullar scored 70 on the par 72 course whereas his partner Kapil Dev scored 76. Shubhankar Sharma recorded a score of 73 and his partner Murali Kartik also scored 76 in a closely fought match. Both teams combined score was five-under-par for the round, with the match ending in a tie.

In the process, they also helped to raise Rs 45, 62,000   to aid the renowned charity organization Magic Bus in their efforts for Covid -19 relief.

Speaking about his round and the newly laid course, Shubhankar Sharma said, “It was really good to be travelling out and playing on a Championship course after quite a break. It played really smooth and I congratulate the DGC and the entire team that came up with this fantastic effort. Looking forward to some top competition in the coming months and this round with such top athletes will do my confidence a world of good.”

Gaganjeet brushed away any talks of a non-competitive round commenting, “Well, if you have one of the best young talents of world golf in Shubhankar and legends like Kapil Paaji teeing off alongside, you know that no quarter is going to be given as far as the Sport part of it is concerned. And I guess that is visible after the round now. I was also very surprised to see how high on Golf skills Murali Kartik has become nowadays. Just goes to show that athletes across Sport share common traits. It was a refreshing experience today and we are glad we could contribute to a noble cause as well.”

Chennai based industrialist and veteran golf enthusiast Dilip Thomas, had already committed to being the lead donor on the day. DCB Bank, Yaantra.com, SRF Foundation also emerged as generous contributors along with many private patrons of the game.

The round involving Shubhankar, Gaganjeet, Kapil and Murali was termed ‘Champions for a Cause- Charity Golf Match’.

This was the first domestic sporting activity to be played for television post the Covid-19 induced nationwide lockdown. Eurosport is set to telecast the round on July 18, 2020 (Saturday) at 9.30 pm.

Rishi Narain, veteran Sports Marketer and Publisher and Editor of Golf Digest India (GDI), the Indian edition of the biggest global golf media brand and now owned and licensed by Discovery Networks in USA, handed over a cheque of INR 45, 62, 500 to Magic Bus India, in the presence of officials of the Delhi Golf Club.

About Magic Bus:

Magic Bus, a renowned organisation over the world, was founded in 1999 by Matthew Spacie. From 3000 children in 1999 in Mumbai, Magic Bus has transformed over one million children and young people living in poverty, taking them from a childhood full of challenges to a life with meaningful livelihoods. Magic Bus also works in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar with 6000 children, in 40 communities and 31 schools. Moreover, they have networking and fundraising offices in US, UK, Singapore and Germany.

Magic Bus is one of the largest poverty alleviation programmes in India, impacting 3, 75,000 children and young people in 22 states and 80 districts of India, in this year alone. We deliver our sports activity-based sessions in close to 2000 communities and 1000 schools in both urban communities and remote rural areas. Since the Livelihood programme began in 2015, we have 42 Livelihood centres. Through these livelihood centres, 30,000 youth have been trained and more than 70% placed in jobs in the organised sector with an average salary of INR 10,287.