145;Never-before-trip146; for Indian golfers

It was a great experience and a 8216;8216;never-before8217;8217; trip that left memories to last a lifetime. 8216;8216;A tour par exc...

It was a great experience and a 8216;8216;never-before8217;8217; trip that left memories to last a lifetime. 8216;8216;A tour par excellence,8217;8217; came the spontaneous reply from Jaideep Patwardhan, who along with Manav Das, Harinder Gupta and Vikrant Chopra, returned from Karachi after successfully playing the 42nd Pakistan Amateur Golf Championship 8212; a first by any Indian team in seven years.

Competition apart 8212; the Indians finished second 8212; the golfers brought back stories from Pakistan to put to rest all 8216;security risk8217; speculations the cricketers were worried about ahead of their tour to Pakistan next month.

Their return to New Delhi was low-profile in total contrast to the way they were greeted in Karachi. Said skipper Patwardhan: 8216;8216;We were given 8216;diplomatic immigration8217; at the airport and treated like, I suppose, the same way Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly would of been treated anywhere else.8217;8217;

Manav Das and Vikrant Chopra added, 8216;8216;A thirty-odd media personnel greeted us and we don8217;t suppose we8217;ve even got that type of response in India. The people were warm and they tried their best to do everything 8216;good8217; so that the message could be carried back.8217;8217;

Tweleve rangers in two jeeps 8212; one in the front and one behind the Indian golfers8217; jeep 8212; escorted the foursome from airport to the Arabian Sea Golf Resort, 8216;8216;something unbelievable, considering that we were just golfers,8217;8217; Patwardhan added.

Was there a fear when they left the Indian shores? Patwardhan said they did fear before reaching Pakistan but after what they experienced, they concentrated only on the game. 8216;8216;We were brand ambassadors to the sports population back home..the same like any country and they Pakistan sure did every bit they could.8217;8217;

For the golfers, the stay was royal and every day they were featuring on either the front or back pages of all the local newspapers. They were obliged with every request made, including food.

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All the four golfers have drawn one conclusion from the trip. 8216;8216;If golfers were provided a 1:4 ration in security, the cricketers would surely feel safer. 8216;8216;Pakistan wants to bridge the gap. We experienced it,8217;8217; said Patwardhan, who reminds that at a dinner hosted by the PGF it was a pleasure bumping into legendary Zaheer Abbas. What did he say? 8216;8216;The Indians are a bit stronger.8217;8217;