The par 72 - 6700 Yards course, which was wet due to heavy rain, turned out to be a tricky one for the golfers on both days. Pushpendra ended up with a gross score of 143 with rounds of 71 and 72 respectively over 36 holes. David D'Souza, on the other hand, notched a total score of 145 with 75 and 70 respectively in each round.
There were individual prizes for the women golfers who participated in the leg where the Best Gross Winner was Tasreem Kazi with a score of 173 and the Best Nett Winner went to Punam Kalra who ended with a score of 139.
The AVT Champions Tour, co-sponsored by Incredible India is meant for senior golfers and is only the second national-senior (50 years and above) golf tournament in this country. The two- day event saw over 100 golfers participating in the Pune Leg from 10 different cities which included star senior golfers like former world cup winning Indian Captain, Kapil Dev, who was the winner in the 60-64 individual age category along with former All India Senior Golf Champion Vijay Kumar who was the runner up in the respective category. Former All India Senior Golf Champion Gangesh Khaitan was the winner in the individual age category of 65 and above. Also, former Asian Games Gold Medallist and 2018 IGU Senior All India National Champion as well as winner of the first leg of the AVT Champions Tour Rishi Narain was the winner in the 55-59 individual age category.
"Winning is always a good feeling. The AVT tour is a brilliant step towards helping us senior amateur golfers play more consistently now for a goal. The senior's tour has revived the competitive spirit and winning amongst some really talented golfers is a feeling that is worth being cherished," said Kapil Dev on winning the individual age category.
The inaugural year of the annual AVT Champions Tour Golf would be played across four locations in India. Classic Golf & country club hosted the first leg, and the third leg ended at the Oxford Golf Course, Pune over 19th and 20th September 2019. The fourth leg will be played in January in Kolkata. Four AVT Events, in this year, will be played to supplement the National Championship to provide the Tournament practice to the Indian Team for the forthcoming international events like Asia Pacific and others.
Speaking on the completion of the successful two-day event, Dilip Thomas, Chairman, and Director, AVT, said, "Sanjeev Mehera and I met one day and thought there should be a competitive tournament for Seniors in the country and Gangesh Khaitan also agreed this would give us a platform to match the other International Seniors Teams and that was where we started, and here we are at the conclusion of the 3rd leg of the AVT Tour and we hope this becomes even bigger in the times to come. "
( With inputs from IANS )