Shivakumar qualifies for MercedesTrophy Finals

City golfer D Shivakumar qualified for the National Finals of MercedesTrophy from the Coimbatore leg qualifier here today.
Shivakumar clinched the qualification spot by carding a nett. score of 69.6 at the Coimbatore Golf Club.
The MercedesTrophy has so far seen 20 qualifiers who will be competing in the National Finals to be played at the Oxford Golf Resort in Pune from April 4-6.
The best Gross Winner of the day was Vignesh Rangarao with a round of 76 and there were a host of other prizes on offer to be won on the day.
Prominent winners included N Makesh Kumar who won the Ballantine's Long Drive Challenge with a mammoth drive of 292 yards. Prabhu Shanker Krishnaswamy won the Mercedes-Benz Closest to Pin contest on hole no. 7 by landing the ball at 8 ft. and 3 inches from the pin.

In the Mercedes Benz Closest to Pin in Two Shots, Venkatesh V landed the ball at 6 ft. and 9 inches from the pin to win the contest on hole no. 3. Jayaram Balasubramaniam won the Mercedes-Benz Straightest Drive contest.

The format of play was Double Peoria. This unique format of adjusting handicaps of players level the playing field enabling golfers to have a greater chance of qualifying for the National Finals.
A total of 80 city golfers participated in the Coimbatore leg qualifiers and now the MercedesTrophy qualifications will move to Kolkata scheduled to tee off on Jan 31.

This year's MercedesTrophy will host 27 days of golf across 12 Indian cities.
The 18th edition of the MercedesTrophy will now travel to six more cities Kolkata, Chennai, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Noida and Jaipur.
Forty-five winners will be selected from the qualifiers for the National Finals. The qualifiers end on March 11 in Jaipur.
Three winners of the National Finals will then compete against those from tournaments played in 60 countries all over the world in the 29th edition of the MercedesTrophy World Final to be held in Stuttgart, Germany.