Fun and banter aplenty at Business Times Corporate Golf League
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The Singapore Pools team (from left): former Cabinet Minister Yaacob Ibrahim, Pools CEO Lam Chee Weng, Pools board member K.C. Lee and Mohd Norhelmy.
PHOTO: LOUIS GOH
Godfrey Robert
SINGAPORE – The Sentosa Golf Club is usually a venue for intense competitions but it was turned into a cauldron of camaraderie last Thursday at The Business Times Corporate Golf League, presented by Singapore Pools.
Among the golfers were Singapore Pools chief executive Lam Chee Weng, board member K.C. Lee and former Cabinet minister Yaacob Ibrahim, who played together.
That most of the teams opted for the social section was indicative of the event’s foremost priority: To network and build friendships.
And the opportunities were many: With exchange of pleasantries and banter at lunch, during the game, at the halfway house for snacks and at the free-seating sumptuous dinner spiced up with live music.
Yet, as in all corporate events, there had to be winners, the biggest of which was extracted from the competitive category.
It was no surprise that battle-hardened Team Boss, regular participants before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the event for three years, grabbed the headlines in the first of the four-leg tournament.
On the modified System 36 stableford format, the team’s three leading players chalked up 111 points, nine ahead of Centurion, with sponsor Audi Sport in third.
Taking top honours was Boss’ Jonathan Lee (course handicap 11), who amassed 37 points to beat teammates Andre Huber and William Tay and Centurion’s Eugene Teo on countback, with all on the same total.
With three of their golfers returning below-par scores, Team Boss stamped their authority on the first leg and will be the team to watch in the second leg at Tanah Merah Country Club’s Tampines course on March 3.
Team I-Kare topped the social section with 109 points, spearheaded by 10-handicapper Dixon Ng, who shot 86 (44-42) for 38 points and also claimed the individual title.
Lying second are Deloitte, only a point behind, with Singapore Global Trust, who fielded former national sportsmen David Lee (goalkeeper) and David Lim (swimmer), third on 106 points.
Bob Seth, managing director of Golf and Leisure, playing in the event for the first time, summed up the day best when he said: “The BT event is a true platform for interaction and intermingling. In the end, I ran out of business cards.”
