Indian Woods: (L to R) Winning team's Ranjan Dasgupta, Shaw Wallace president A.K.M.A. Shamshuddin, team members Rajan Gandhi and Ajay Anand with BT Publisher Ashish Bagga and tournament manager Rishi Narain

They were all there. Corporate India's most avid golfers, on a balmy Saturday morning at Bombay Presidency Golf Club, venue for the Western qualifier round of the Business Today-Royal Challenge Pro Am of Championships, an exclusive golf tournament. Around 75 CEOs and professional golfers (the only two passports to entry) turned up at 7:30 am to tee-off in search of sporting glory.

It was a who's who affair. There was Vikram Singh Mehta of Shell, Rana Kapoor of Rabo Bank, Bharat Patel of P&G... some PSU honchos and several stars from the financial firmament. Wielding their favorite Calloways, they were well prepared for what is now an annual fixture on the national golfing calendar.

In line with the Stableford format for play over the 18 hole-5,957 yard Bombay Presidency course, participants were split into three categories depending on their handicaps. Corporate bigwigs ranged in handicap from low single digits to the 20s-partly the subject over lunch. For Rabo Bank's Kapoor, it was great fun. "After all, that's what golfing is all about-relaxing; the networking is only incidental." The networking, of course, was good too. "It's great to meet world class people at world class venues," says Ranjit Pandit of McKinsey, a 2-handicap golfer who's a member of the prestigious WestChester Country Club in New York and a regular at the Buick Classic tour event every year in May.

And the winners? Captain A.S. Mann, a professional, in the 0-12 handicap group; Riad Fyzee, MD, Atlas Fairfield, in the 13-17 group; and Ajay Anand, MD, Faze III, in the 18-14 handicap group.