Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup Nepal Qualifiers next Saturday

General Manager of Turkish Airlines Abdullah Tuncer Kececi speaks as Executive Member of Gokarna Golf Club Bhairaja Pandey (left) and Senior Golf Director Deepak Acharya look on during a press meet of the Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup Nepal Qualifiers in Kathmandu on Tuesday. Photo: Naresh Shrestha / THT

Kathmandu, April 30

The second edition of the Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup Nepal Qualifiers is slated for May 11 at the Gokarna Golf Club.

Around 100 golfers from five golf clubs and invitees will take part in the one-day event which will be played under stableford format with maximum of 18 handicap allowance, informed the organisers at a press meet today.

Similar tournament will be held in 100 Turkish Airlines destinations and the winners of all the qualifiers, including Nepal, will take part in the Grand Finale in Antalya, Turkey in November. The winner along with few to players in Antalya will earn berths for the Pro-Am of the European Tour event, the Turkish Airlines Open.

The organisers have allotted 15 seats for Royal Nepal Golf Club, five for Tribhuvan Army Officers Golf Club, three for Himalayan Golf Course of Pokhara and two for Nirvana Country Club of Dharan. “We will have majority of players from Gokarna and the sponsors have also sent invitations to the Turkish Airlines regular customers,” said Senior Golf Director of Gokarna Forest Resort.

“It will be a lifetime experience for the winners as the golfer will get a chance to play alongside the best players across the globe apart from royal treat,” said Acharya. Madhav Acharya had participated in the tournament last year in Turkey after he won the Nepal Qualifiers.

General Manager of Turkish Airlines Abdullah Tuncer Kececi said the main objective of the tournament was to make Nepal a golf destination. “It was our dream to bring the event to Nepal as we wanted to have a big golf event here. And we need to promote tourism beyond mountains and this event is a step towards the goal,” said Kececi, who dedicated the tournament to Gokarna Forest Resort Chairman Ang Tsering Sherpa, a tourism industry entrepreneur and avid golfer. “We had seen the dream of making Nepal a golfing destination together and as an honour to Sherpa, we are handing over special trophy in his memory,” he added.

Executive Member of Gokarna Golf Club, Bhairaja Pandey thanked Turkish Airlines and its General Manager Kececi for the invaluable contribution towards Nepal’s tourism.

“Kececi is like tourism ambassador for Nepal as he comes up with different ideas to promote tourism,” said Pandey. “There are so many countries in world which are earning a lot of money through golf tourism. We can also bring in hundreds of thousands golfers to Nepal If we can make it a golf destination,” he added.