Tee Time

The tournament is the initiative of Dr Shireesh Sathe,director of cardiology at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital,and entrepreneur Amar Umbarje. “We have several city-based tournaments for the IT sectors and other professions but not for the doctors. Both of us decided to introduce a competition which would only cater to the doctor fraternity in the city,” says Dr Sathe. When asked why golf was the chosen sport,Umbarje says,“What could be better than golf as it has been the passion of most of the city doctors?” Dr Sathe,being the medical man,highlights the positives of this sport. “After a certain age,golf is the ideal exercise. Especially so,for the older generation that shies away from other sporting events,” he says.

This leisure sport has been a platform for the medical practitioners to meet twice a week,fine tune their golfing skills so as not to get rusty as well as to interact with each other. “From a handful of participants in the first year,the tournament has grown to include 60 doctors this year,” says Dr Sathe with a smile. On Saturday,the participants left the stress of their work behind and focused on the game ahead. A delicious lunch and friendly conversations followed. “The tournament is unique in its own way as we invite doctors without their families. This is a time when we can mingle with people from the same profession as we rarely meet otherwise due to everyone’s hectic schedules,” says Dr Sathe.

Paediatrician Dr V T Date won the title with 35 points while Dr Girish Saudhatikar,an anaesthesiologist at Command Hospital,came a close second with 34 points. “It was difficult to take time out from work but I managed to practice twice a week,” says Dr Saudhatikar who was the champion in 2008 when Dr Date was the runner-up. The organisers even had a special category introduced for the senior citizens of the fraternity this year. “My senior doctor friends always said that it was unfair not to include people over the age of 70 years. Golf isn’t a tiring sport,so we thought of including them as well,” adds Umbarje. The women doctors competed separately and Dr Sushma Date scored the highest points (29).