VOL 18 • ISSUE 11 • November, 2016 • www.dlfgolfresort.com

SIGNATURE COURSER

GolferGolferCountryCountry

Dear Member,

November was a busy month with the Hero Women’s Indian Open 2016 being held here. Most heartening, as the challenging Gary Player course was conquered by our very own Aditi Ashok (-3) the first Indian woman to lift the coveted trophy. Later in the month, we played host to the BMW regional qualifiers and the National Finals. The event was very successful and culminated with an excellent evening with magic and I Pad tech show.

Finally the winter is setting in, though a little late but the good part is that the golfers are really enjoying chasing the wee ball on the challenging yet mesmerizing Gary Player Course! The course is running full to its capacity especially on the weekends.

Look forward to an action-packed December! Sunday Brunches are back with a new avatar. Great value for money prices with special deals on drinks and a variety of cuisine, music and entertainment and not to forget the varied activities for kids and grown-ups.

On members' demand, we are setting up a live grill section at the Pavilion Bar. Enjoy a variety of wines and live music here. Festivities are not yet over. Join us with friends and family on Sunday the 25th at the X’Mas Carnival and on the 31st to bid adieu to 2016 and ring in 2017!

Happy Golfing,

Vishal BhartiAsst. Vice President

Aditi Ashok does us proud!

Christmas Carnival

_ Lakeside Lawn Sunday 25th Dec.Aditi Ashok - the first Indian to lift the Women's Indian Open Trophy!

DLF Medal Round

Hole–in–One Club

On the 5th, already a member of the elite Hole-in-One Club, Shan Hui achieved his 2nd Ace. The AP Hole No. 3 succumbed to his 3 Rescue. This marvellous feat was witnessed by his caddie and a gallery of maintenance men working around the green. His name now has a star against it on the Honour Board.

Obituary

Sanjeev Mehra passed away on 29th November, leaving behind a bereaved family and numerous friends. He joined the club way back in 2001 and was a regular on the course and at the Club. He was a great supporter of the Club and would often say how much he loved being here. Sanjeev was always straightforward with his praises and criticism and always gave us positive suggestions on how to e n h a n c e m e m b e r s ' clubbing experience. A foodie, in fact a few days before leaving us, he suggested that with winter setting in, we should start a live grill station up at the bar as the sight & aroma would draw more members. We have implemented his suggestion and wish he was here to partake the first few morsels off the grill. Sanjeev’s presence will be truly missed by us all at the Club. Our heartfelt condolences to Kavita, Akul and Shubh. We pray that God gives them strength to bear this loss and that his soul rests in eternal peace.

Gaurav Sethi with Gentleman Golfer of the Month, Upen Roop Rai Lady Golfer of the Month Eun Sil Cho with Jeong A

Closest-to-Pin winner Ravi Chopra with Kumar Binit Closest-to-Pin winner Christy Lee & Shan Hui

Andy with ACE Shan Hui, and KingChristy Lee

Late Sanjeev Mehra

Sunday Outdoor Buffet Lunches

Winter is every one's favourite season and the club is the perfect place to enjoy the outdoors. The ambience, sporting activities, food & wine and dollops of sunshine draws members and their guests like a magnet. Most anticipated are the all time ' Sunday Outdoor Buffet Lunches'. A lazy, satiated day spent with family and friends – enjoying a vast array of mouth-watering cuisine, listening to music and soaking in the sun while children are kept engrossed in a variety of activities. Is there a better way to chill out?

Members with family & friends enjoying the outdoor experience

A host of activities keeping the young ones happy & busy

No better place to entertain the near & dear ones

Hero Women’s Indian Open 2016

The10th Anniversary of the Women’s Indian Open saw history being created and it will be forever enshrined in the annals of Indian golf history! Much was expected of this HERO edition as the field boasted of 12 Olympians, two previous champions Gwladys Nocera (Fra), Caroline Hedwell (Swe)and the defending Champion Emily Pederson (Den) confirming their participation. Adding to the strength were US LPGA stars Brittany Lincicome & Beth Allen and rising star on the European Tour, our own Olympian Aditi Ashok ! For sure we were not disappointed.

This story is all about Aditi Ashok! She was playing here as a professional for the first time. Day one, Teeing off from the 10th saw a disastrous start. After a birdie on the 11th she gave away six shots between the 13th and 16th holes. Then she steadied the ship and shot 7 straight pars and birdied the next three in a row, narrowly missed another one on the 9th hole to score an even par and finished Tied at ninth position for the day.History was in the making for this braveheart. Day Two saw a great display of courage and grit on the back nine. Three sterling birdies in the front nine and five more in the last eight holes, had her finish with a three under 69 to top the leaderboard with a two shot lead.The Final Day saw her Tee off along with defending champion Emily Pederson (Den) and Belen Mozo (Esp), two strokes clear of the chasing pack, Ashok tussled with Belen Mozo for the lead throughout the back nine. Meanwhile, Brittany Lincicome had set the clubhouse target at two-under. Both Aditi & Belen had to birdie for a playoff. Mozo left her birdie putt of 20 feet just short.Tension was palpable in the air as the crowd of onlookers held their breath and prayers in their hearts as the young rookie calmly walked up and sank her four footer putt. The roar was deafening! The drought was finally over with Aditi Ashok sinking the winning putt and we had an Indian lift the coveted Trophy!

Victor - Aditi Ashok Mr. Pawan Munjal gladly presents the trophy to the first Indian Champion

A well-earned Cheque

Runners-up Brittany & Belen with Mr. Munjal Best Indian Amateur Diksha Dagar receiving her trophy Presentation Party - Aakash Ohri, Ivan Peter Khodabakhah, Pawan Munjal, Kavita Singh, Rinki Dhingra and Champika Sayal

Belen Mozo misses the putt - Sheer Agony! Ex Champion Emily K. Pedersen Bam Bam Lincicome

Hero Women’s Indian Open 2016

Brittany and Belen finished tied second with identical totals of two-under 214 after 54 holes, one adrift of the winner. Thai player Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul took the fourth spot with a total score of 215, followed by English golfer Florentyna Parker at 216 to complete the top five positions. Among other notable golfers, Emily Pedersen and Kiran Matharu finished tied 9th while Christine Wolf, who had remained in contention for the last two days, had to settle for the tied 11th position. Local professional Vani Kapoor had an off day in the park and carded 6 over 78 to settle for tied 28th position. Diksha Dagar finished as the best amateur in the tournament with a total score of 229.

Upcoming Diksha Dagar I have the best view! Vani Kapoor - T28

Christine Wolf - T11 Following the Leader up the 17th Hole Kiran Matharu - T9

Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul - 4th place WGAI Secretary General Champika Sayal taking a breather Florentyna Parker - 5th place

Hero Women’s Indian Open 2016

THE HERO CHALLENGE

Kavita Singh, Mukta Malhotra, Sourav Das, Lucie Andre & Sandeep Sachdeva

Longest Drive winner Manav Sardana with Kavita Singh

Rama Chawla receives the Longest Drive prize from Kavita Singh

Sukhbir Singh wins the Longest Drive

Indian flavourLetting their hair down Pawan Munjal & Kavita Singh with the Olympians

Carly Booth tees off the Hero Challenge

Ajit Agarkar beat Pawan Munjal & Kavita Singh

Kavita Singh, Atul Lall, Maha Haddioui, Gaurav Dogra & Rajan Sehgal

Roshni Yadav, Jatin Sindhu, Pawan Munjal, Laura Jansone & Manmohan Thandi

BMW Golf Cup International 2016

BMW Golf Cup International 2016 qualifiers were hosted on the 24th & 25th November. 26th saw all the regional winners from across the country fly in to compete in the National Finals for the coveted top positions and in the hope of representing India in the World Finals. Monica Jajoo won the Ladies category in the qualifier and made it to the National Finals. She missed out and had to be content with the Runner-up trophy. Along the way she picked up the Closest-to-Pin and the Ballantine's Longest Drive prizes. Baktawar Saini won the Runner-up trophy in the Ladies category in the qualifiers. Mukta won the Lufthansa Straightest Drive and Sukhbir Singh the Ballantine's Longest Drive.

A Gala Dinner was held for the National finalist with Chief Guest BMW Ambassador Shiv Kapur. He mingled with the players and gave them some handy tips for the all important final match the next day. The evening included a whisky appreciation session by Ballantine's Ambassador Paul O Connor along with celebrity bartender & mixologist Ami Shroff serving them. The evening concluded with iPad and Digital Technology Magicians Keelan Leyser & Matt Baker from the UK entertaining everyone with some extraordinary digital magic.

2nd Runner-up Bakhtawar Saini1st Runner-up Monica Jajoo

Sukhbir Singh - winner of the Ballantine's Longest Drive with Somil Nijhawan & Frank SchloderMukta won the Lufthansa Straightest Drive

Ladies at the Gala Dinner Digital Technology Magicians - Keelan Leyser & Matt Baker

Children’s DayFor a child each day is Children’s Day, but somewhere on the road of life we have outrun the playtime with our kids. So the DLF Golf & Country Club chose 14th November to celebrate the child in all of us.The tiny tots spent the afternoon doing crazy science experiments. This was organised by Pik A Book, a book based activity kit. The founders, Neha Indoria and Dhruvan Brar, took it unto themselves to engage the kids with activities such as Rain in the Jar, Fizzy Volcanoes, Magic Balloons, Leak proof Bag and Balancing Race.

Sports Complex

The parents too watched with excitement in their eyes, as the activities rolled on for two hours. The Kids Room in the Sports Complex turned into a magical memento framed forever in each one's mind.The little apprentices performed all the magic with aplomb as nothing could encourage them more than having their parents as their audience.

Tennis Tournaments

The Tennis season is in full swing and on weekends one finds the courts abuzz with excitement as tournaments are in progress. This month we had the Juniors on centre court hogging the limelight with Kids participating in the under 10 years and 12 years categories.Kunaal Dhawan won the under 10 years category and Arjun Gupta was the runner-up in this category.Once again in the under 12 years category Kunaal Dhawan won by beating Arnav B. Chowdhury.

AvailableTaekwondo Classes (Sat & Sun) Contact Vijender Mahalwal at 09654007430

Arjun Gupta & Kunal DhawanKunal Dhawan & Arnav Chaudhury

Children's Day was celebrated at the Club with crazy science experiments by Pik A Book

Feathered friends on your course by Raghav Dhall

Indian Grey Hornbill

The Indian Grey Hornbill is always a delight to see. It has a pale grey underbelly and a long tail, which is tipped black and white. It has a red iris, with the males having dark skin around it and females having pale reddish skin orbitals. The most distinctive part is the beak, which is where it gets its name from. The males have a large blackish grey bill, with yellow on the lower part while the females' bill is more yellow and less grey.

It is found all over India. The hornbill has adapted to urban areas and is therefore sighted in cities. It eats a variety of fruits, (favourite being figs) termites, small rodents and sometimes flowers. February to March is nesting season for the bird; it usually nests in the hollows of tall trees. Both the male and female participate in the feeding of the hatchlings.

Did you know?

Interestingly, the female hornbill stays inside the nest during most of the incubation and fledgling period (approximately 5-6 weeks). It protects the nest by sealing it with excreta and mud pellets supplied by the male.

of the eggs

L’Opéra returned after a hiatus of nearly two years to reopen its outlet, much to the delight of its fans at the Club! They have set up an outlet at the Golf Academy which was inaugurated by H.E. the High Commissioner of Brunei, Mr. Dato Paduka Sidek Ali on Sunday 27th November. Also present amongst the august gathering of around 120 members and guests were H.E. the Ambassador of Jordan Mr. Hassan Mahmoud Mohammad AlJawarneh and Head of Operations of the Club, Vishal Bharti.L’Opéra addicts were delighted to see Lakpa Letcha again. “We have missed our old friend,” one of them said. “Getting great coffee and premium bakery products with his charming smile makes for a great day,” mentioned another.

L’Opéra Returns

The evening ended with a tasting of L’Opéra’s products, including a foretaste of new delicacies for the Christmas season, including Gingerbread biscuits, Panetonne and a selection of mini pastries. L’Opéra will be serving its usual line of products at the outlet, including pastries, breads, Viennese, salty items and the quintessentially French Macarons.

Raghav Dhall

Tempting tidbits to whet one's appetite

Indian Grey Hornbill

His Excellency Mr. Dato Paduka Sidek Ali inaugurates the L’Opéra outlet at the Golf Academy

Academy News

AF CL AO DG E MFL Y

D

Hitaashi Bakshi won the Runner-up trophy in Category ‘C’ in the 8th Albatross International Tournament 2016, held at Classic Golf Resorts in November. She also won the Team India Championship trophy in the Girls Category C+D.

This Month's Achievers

Nayanika Sanga lifted the trophy in the Western Indian Junior Golf Championship held at Oxford Golf & Country Club, Pune.

DLF Golf Academy Junior volunteers were an integral part of the Hero Women’s Indian Open 2016 and contributed immensely to its success. As always, this tech-savvy, well trained army enthusiastically came forth and assisted in its operations. They were at their posts throughout the Championship, smoothly performing various duties like live scoring, updating leaderboards & walking with the leader groups on the last day. In return, they gained valuable knowledge and above all the satisfaction of a job well done!

Pitch over Bunker

Karan's Tips

Pic 2: Set up with the ball in the centre of the stance, and the face open a bit. Grip down low and keep the weight favouring the front foot.

Pic 3: Shows an extension of the hands away from the target. Try to extend the club back and through with a gentle turn of the upper body. Try not to ‘lift’ the ball in the air, especially by flicking the wrists.For more consistency, use the angle of the club face to get the height. Remember, if the club face gets under the ball, the ball will get the height needed to clear the bunker.

While playing a chip / pitch shot, evaluate if you have trouble e.g. bunker on the way.

Hitaashi Bakshi with her trophy

Pic 1: As shown, in this case, we have a bunker to negotiate. Nayanika Sanga

Volunteers' briefing by Anitya Chand

Christine Wolf of Austria with Junior Volunteers Volunteers taking score from Aditi Ashok

This month, let’s have a look at the next parameter as measured by the launch monitor TrackMan – Smash Factor.Definition of Smash Factor: The ratio of ball speed divided by club speed, which descr ibes the efficiency of impact. The smash factor depends on a few factors like the spin loft, centeredness of impact location and the face to path relationship. Smash Factor relates to the amount of energy transferred from the club head to the golf ball. The higher the smash factor the better the energy transfer. In simple

terms, the more you hit the golf ball from the center of the golf club, the better the energy transfer and therefore the more the distance given the same club speed and all other conditions. Smash factor would also be higher when the loft of the club becomes lower or the spin loft is lower.As an example, a golfer would hope to achieve a smash factor near 1.50 on driver shots as the loft is around 10 degrees. That means for a 100 mph club speed the ball speed would be 150 mph. The higher the loft of the club, the lower the smash factor is expected to be. The smash factor for a pitching wedge with about a 45-degree loft would be around the 1.25 mark.I would recommend all players to improve their smash factor to get more distance rather than swing harder at the ball to gain more speed, something that we see very often. The basic factor being that the more you focus on hitting the golf ball from the center of the golf club, the better your chances of hitting the ball starighter and longer. As another example, let's take a golfer who has a club speed of 100 mph and a smash factor of 1.40. His resulting ball speed is 140 mph. In comparison, a second player may have the same club head speed of 100 mph and a smash factor of 1.50 resulting in a ball speed of 150 mph. The 10 mph difference in ball speed between these two golfers (150 mph - 140 mph) equates to approximately 20 – 25 yards in distance between their shots even though they have the same club speed.In the article a couple of months ago on club speed, I had mentioned that the average club head speed on the LPGA Tour is 94 mph which is approximately the same as that of the average club golfer. However, the average LPGA Tour player hits it further than the average male amateur as they almost always hit the ball in the center of the club face thereby getting a much higher smash factor as compared to the average male amateur. Therefore, even though the club speed is around the 94 mph mark, the LPGA professionals would hit the driver longer than the average male amateur, as their centeredness of contact or Smash factor is higher thereby giving them a higher transfer of energy and ball speed.

TrackMan Parameters - Smash Factor

GOLD DIVISION - MEDAL ROUND

Winner Runner-Up

Category A Tarinni Sameer Kakar Riya Yadav

Tanisha Kalyan

Category C Anhad Grewal Anirudh Bharath

Category B Fateh Singh Gill

SILVER DIVISION - MEDAL ROUND

Winner Runner-UpCategory B Sehejvir Singh Guleria Ishaan NakraCategory C Nihal Singh Mehaan Jolly

Golf Academy Honour Board

*ACADEMY CALENDARJunior Gold Division Medal Round: 8th (Thursday)

Junior Silver Medal Round: 15th (Thursday)

Taking time out, star player Brittany Lincicome of USA, conducted a Clinic for Club members and Academy juniors. A regular on the LPGA Tour, she is known to be one of the longest drivers on the circuit. This prowess earned her the sobriquet of BAM BAM Brittany. When asked the secret of her long drives, she claimed she had the fastest hips on the tour thanks to having to compete with her dad and brothers from the same tees! Brittany had the juniors totally involved in the Clinic. She got them to hit shots and helped them with their techniques. All in all, it was a great learning experience and surely most golfers present are now trying to work on her tips.

A Golf Clinic with Star Player

Brittany Lincicome

After all the excitement of the

tournament week it was back to the grind !

Juniors with Anitya Chand & Kaka Kohli

Anitya ChandAnitya Chand

Golf Clinic by Brittany Lincicome

Rapt audience!

December CalendarDecember Calendar

Country Golfer Vol. 18 • Issue 11 • Editor : Rama Chawla • Club Phone No. : 0124-4525252 • Fax : 0124-4525282 DLF Golf Resorts Ltd. Designed & Produced by Chiranjn Advertising, Ph - 011-45192000

Our Sponsors

* The Golf Course & Academy open for regular Play. ** F&B Reservations will be held for 15 minutes only.

*ACADEMY CALENDAR8th - Thursday

Junior Gold Division Medal Round15th - Thursday

Junior Silver Medal Round

EVENTS

16th - Friday

Double Peoria systemOpen through the Day

*DLF- MEDAL ROUND

F&B OFFERINGS

PAVILION RESTAURANT

Pavilion Bar Weekends - Live Grills

24th - SaturdayHero Christmas Cup Open to Members only

Special & Happening activities for all. Come & join the fun....

Sunday Brunches Lakeside Lawns

Relish fresh cooked food from our live grills

Cocktails of the Day Kids ActivitiesLive BandCuisine of the Day

Jamaican FlavourOriental GrillIndian Tandoor

Classic Cocktails7th onwards

25th - Sunday

CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL31st - Saturday

NEW YEAR'S EVE BASH

23rd - FridayDLF Junior Christmas Cup

Open to Members only

25th - SundaySkills Competitions

Open to Members only

11th - Sunday

GP Course opens at 1330 hrs.HGA Golf Tournament

17th - SaturdayDLF Cyber City Cup

GP Course opens at 1330 hrs.

TENNIS TOURNAMENTSSunday - 4th & 5th - Monday

Format : Round Robin1600 hrs. onwards

Boys & Girls Under 14 Yrs.10th onwards

Format : Knock Out2000 hrs. onwards

Men’s Singles Open11th onwards

Format: Round Robin 1600 hrs. onwards

Women’s Singles Open