Bhubaneswar: The Pro-Am tournament was a big success where 16 teams participated along with 16 professional golfers and 48 local golfers played over 18 holes in the Dilip Tirkey Invitational Golf Tournament here at Bhubaneswar Golf Course here on Sunday.

In a thrilling contest, team comprising of Rajnish Das, Brig. K. C Behera, Subhra Mishra and Pawan Verma emerged champion in the ‘Best Ball Scramble’ team event. The runner up team members are Jayant Biswas, Rishi Mohanty, VSS Madan and Laksh Nagar

The Closed to pin, Longest Drive and Straightest Drive claimed by Anil Chadda, Capt. Subhas das and Rajesh Das respectively.

The Golf Pro-Am, a platform for amateur local golfers to play alongside professional golfers of the country. Kapil Dev, President of the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) in the social media expressed “thanks to the Padmashri Dilip Tirkey for hosting the professional golf tournament in the capital city of Odisha, it helps golf to reach the smaller city like Bhubaneswar and give a platform to popularise the sports”.

This has opened up Bhubaneswar as an important destination for professionals and many more such events are being planned by Game Start, a sport event management company founded by Nitai Patnaik of Bhubaneswar. Game Start partnered with PGTI (Professional Golf Tour of India) to make this event a huge success.

The professional event is scheduled to be held from 4th-6th of November where 72 pro golfers from all over the country will be participating. The total prize money for winners is over ₹20 lacs.