Date:01/08/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/08/01/stories/2004080106881700.htm

Sport - Golf

Kapil Dev to play Tiger Woods

By Our Special Correspondent

GURGAON, JULY 31. Kapil Dev putted with the ease of a professional as Shahrukh Khan, among others, watched more out of curiosity than interest at the DLF Golf and Country Club here on a cloudy Saturday afternoon.

Kapil is seriously honing his skills at the game, for precisely a month from now, he will be on his way for a pro-am event in Boston where he gets to play with Tiger Woods.

Tag Heuer, whose brand ambassadors include Woods and Shahrukh Khan, has chosen the skipper of the 1983 World Cup winning team to be the Indian celebrity on the eve of the Deutsche Bank Championship, a PGA Tour event.

Kapil, who received a Tag Heuer Link Calibre 36 watch from Shahrukh Khan, expressed his happiness at the opportunity to play golf with Woods. "I think it is like a child playing cricket dreaming of playing with Sachin Tendulkar," was how Kapil chose to put it.

Shahrukh said, "when I was a young boy, it was my dream to own a Tag Heuer and now I am happy to have one." Later, he tried his hand at putting on practice green before teeing off the Tag Heuer Speed Golf tournament. "I am surely better at other things than golf," was the candid admission of Shahrukh holding a putter for the first time.

The Speed Golf competition has attracted 25 teams of four members each. Here, the handicaps of all four players contribute to the team's handicap. The team with lowest combination of time taken and net score will be declared the winner. Thereafter, the four members of the team battle it out in a mini-match to ascertain who gets a chance to travel to Boston to meet Tiger Woods.

Ravi Thakran, Regional Managing Director, LVMH Watch and Jewellery told The Hindu, "there are 38 such contests around the world and the winners will get to be with Woods. Next year, Tag Heuer plans to hold this championship in every metro in the country. The champion who tops the competition of the winners from the metros will get a chance to meet Woods. This time, besides Kapil, we are trying to take Shahrukh. I hope, he agrees."