India Golf Awards Announced

Anirban Lahiri, Vani Kapoor bag Best Golfer Titles at India Golf Awards 2015

 Hon’ble Power Minister Shri Piyush Goyal, top golf seeders Anirban Lahiri, Arjun Atwal, Shiv Kapur and top CEOs grace the occasion

The Awards honors best golfing talent and infrastructure in the country

New Delhi, Feb 16, 2015: The Take Solutions India Golf Awards 2015 saw the best of the golfing talent clinch coveted titles during its gala second-edition ceremony here, with Anirban Lahiri, who is beaming in the glory of recent Malyasian Open win, bagging the Best Professional Golfer of the year award, powered by golfingindian.com

Delhi’s Vani Kapoor was declared the Best Professional Female Golfer of the year at the dazzling evening, in the gracious presence of Hon’ble Union Power Minister Shri Piyush Goyal, DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kant and top-notch golfers and business honchos. Pawan Munjal, CEO & MD, Hero MotoCorp, HR Srinivasan of Take Solutions, Sanjay Nayar of KKR India and Puneet Dalmia of Dalmia Cements, among others, graced the occasion. Top seed Indian golfers on the international scene like Daniel Chopra and Arjun Atwal were also present.

The India Golf Awards, powered by GolfingIndian.com, is the country’s foremost awards for recognizing and rewarding golf excellence.

The rising golfer title in the male category went to S Chikkarangappa, while the dynamic Vaishavi Sinha won the award in the female segment. The title for Best Teaching Pro was given to none other than Vijay Divecha, who has been Lahiri’s coach for 13 long years.

“The India Golf Awards is a commendable initiative to promote Golf in the country. The recognition will encourage others to take up the sport and the existing golf players to strive to perform better. I congratulate GolfingIndian.com and its founder Shaili Chopra for the concerted efforts to have taken the initiative to encourage the game in the country,” said the minister.

Other than professional golfers, the awards also recognizes the golfing business community, celebrities and bureaucrats who play the sport, and the best of golf infrastructure in the country to give a boost to the game in the country.

For the best golf academy, Chandigarh Golf Range Academy pipped others to emerge winner. While the Best Golf Course award went to Kalhaar Blues and Greens, Ahmedabad, Best Golf Real Estate title was won by Prestige Golfshire.

“This year, the response has been fabulous with the size of participation having grown tremendously. In its second year, India Golf Awards has grown bigger significantly. Such a huge response will provide a certain push to our efforts to popularize the game in India. Our move to recognize golf infrastructure and golf enthusiasts and budding talent has also paid off,” said Shaili Chopra, curator of India Golf Awards and Founder of GolfingIndian.com. Ms Chopra is an award- winning journalist, author and entrepreneur.

Golf is a game of style and sophistication and the same was recognized at the golfing do. Ace golfer Shiv Kapur this year was named the GQ Best Dressed Golfer, as leading fashion designer Nikhil Mehra and cricketer Murali Kartik were bestowed with the title of Best Celebrity Golfer.

In some special categories, the Veteran Award was given to former golf champion and Arjuna Awardee Ashok Malik and two-time Indian Open champion Ali Sher. Women’s Golf Association of India (WGAI) president Kavita Singh has been given Recognition for Individual Contribution to the Sport, and Daniel Chopra has been named Global Golf Ambassador. DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kant received the honour for the Policy Man on the Course.

After due diligence and tough screening, the Jury concluded the names of the winners under various categories.

This year the Jury was kicked off by five-time British Open winner Peter Thomson and conducted by a team of solid golf veterans that included Arjuna Awardee and former golf champion Ashok Malik, pro tour golfer Gaurav Ghei and Champika

Sayal of Women’s Golf Association of India. The Jury, which is always led by a star legend, was championed last year by Gary Player.