Saturday, October 14th 2006 was a historic day for Chinmaya Mission. We held the first Chinmaya Annual Charity Golf Tournament- Dharma-Kshetra 2006, and it was a grand success. Volunteers from the Mithila center had been working for the past six months planning and organizing this event. Over 100 golfers participated in a fun-filled day of charity golf at the exclusive Tustin Ranch Golf course in Tustin, California.
The goal of the event was to raise community awareness about the activities of Chinmaya Mission and also to generate funds that would support the various service projects of the Mission. The event was completely sold out one week in advance. Entry fee to the tournament was $250. This included a round of golf, free access to the practice facility, breakfast, a gift bag, lunch and dinner. The gift bag that was given to each participant included a collared golf tee shirt, golf cap, a sleeve of golf balls, a golf tool kit, a souvenir booklet and automatic entry for many door prizes that were given out during the evening program.
 
The day started with registrations at 9:30am. Chinmaya Mission volunteers were present to receive all the guests. Young volunteers Shireen Kulkarni and Riya Chaudhary enthusiastically helped out at the registration desk. Upon registration, participants received their tournament gift bag after which they were free to go the practice facility. Thanks to the efforts of Rekha Acharya, Sundari Velu and Hema Ravikumar, a delicious breakfast was offered to everyone. The breakfast included hot pakodas and aloo tikki from Haveli, a delicious Middle Eastern vegetable bread roll and hot tea.
Putting Contest:
  
A putting contest was organized by Steve Norris of Straight Arrow Golf. For an entry fee of $5, participants had opportunities to win prizes from $50 up to $5000. This event received enthusiastic participation from everyone including non golfers, women and children.
Swami Ishwaranandaji also tried his hand at winning at the contest!
Tournament Format:
The format for the tournament was “Best Ball Scramble". In this format, golfers were grouped in teams of four. Every member in the foursome teed off, the best tee shot was chosen and all players played their second shots from that spot (radius of club length). The best of the second shots was determined, then all played their third shots from that spot, and so on until the ball was holed. Additional opportunities like ‘Throws’ and ‘Ball Placements’ were offered to participants at a price.
 
Shot-Gun start:
The tournament got underway at 12:30pm in a shotgun start. All teams were assigned starting holes from where they would tee off for a round of eighteen holes. A boxed lunch (Sponsored by Chakra Restaurant) was provided ‘to go’ to all players in their golf carts. The golf carts at Tustin Ranch featured a state of the art GPS technology and electronic scoring system. Swami Ishwaranandaji addressed all the players and wished them the best of luck before the start.
Swamiji teed off the tournament on the first hole. Swamiji’s drive involved all the elements.
In the stillness of the ether, he hit the ball with a fire in his swing, the club hit the earth first, the ball went up in the air and landed in the water.
Swamiji’s Score: A Whole in One!
Hole in One:
All players had an opportunity to win a brand new BMW at the signature 11th hole at the course. The 11th hole was a challenging 181 yards par 3 that required a tee shot over water and into the wind. Many players’ shots ended up in the water. A few players got close but we did not have a ‘Hole-in-One’. Additionally there was a ‘Closest to Pin contest’ on holes 3 and 17 and a ‘Long Drive contest’ on holes 9 and 15.
Tee Signs:
Every hole on the course featured a 30” x 40” sign that had displayed three components for the players to pay attention to.
- A sponsor advertisement.
- Wisdom from each of the eighteen chapters of the Bhagavad-Gita was displayed on each of the eighteen holes. Each hole carried knowledge from its corresponding chapter in the Gita.
- A golf trivia quiz question. Each group was required to record their answers on each hole and turn them in after the round for a chance to win a special prize.
Dinner:
After the round, all the players gathered at the banquet room for the evening program. The grand banquet was open to non-golfers as well.
  
Swami Ishwaranandaji was the chief guest for the evening. Br. Girish Chaitanyaji from the Kasi center was also the guest of honor. The head of the tournament organizing committee, Ravi Vishnubhotla, spoke a few words about Chinmaya Mission and introduced Swamiji. Swamiji thanked the gathering and gave a short talk on the similarities between the lessons of golf and the knowledge of Vedanta. His message was “Go Out and Live Fully” (GOLF).
A beautiful silent auction was setup by ‘Sporthings.com’. The auction offered rare and exclusive collectibles and memorabilia from political, sports and entertainment fields. Some of the items sold included an autographed picture and bio of Kobe Bryant, a basketball autographed by Kobe Bryant, a framed quote by Babe Ruth, a framed picture of Dwayne Wade, a framed picture of golfer Vijay Singh and a film strip of legendary actress Lucille Ball. Portions of the proceeds from the silent action were donated to Chinmaya Mission.
The Golf trivia quiz was won by Vipul Patel who had 16 of the 18 questions answered correctly. The prize was a Cleveland cap that was autographed by David Toms. Vipul graciously gave his prize to the runner up who in turn gifted his prize to the youngest participant in the tournament. It was indeed an evening of charity and graciousness.
One of the organizers, Deepak Kulkarni, conducted a very lively and entertaining auction and door prize giveaways. The items auctioned included rounds of golf at Tustin Ranch, a round of golf at El Toro Golf course, golf bags, specialized hybrid golf clubs and a putter. The door prizes included tee shirts, caps, golf gloves, golf swing trainers, golf towels and a couple of golf jackets. There was something for everyone to take home.
A very special Italian vegetarian dinner was organized by the golf club. The menu was classic Italian gourmet - a Panzanella-tomato-cucumber-crouton salad , Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots alla Milanesa, Grilled Polenta Cakes, Potato Gnocchi w/butter parsley and parmesan, Grilled Vegetable lasagna, Penne pasta con mushroom trifolati and Mushroom Ravioli with herb cream. The dessert featured a delicious cheesecake.
After the dinner, all the sponsors were given acknowledgement plaques by Br.Girish Chaitanya. The following sponsors were acknowledged:
Hole Sponsors
Signature Estate & Investment Advisors, LLC
Financia
Trans-Soft Technology
Acharya & Sharma Medical Group
Union Bank of California
Sharma Constructions
Premier Commercial Bank
Neeru & Anil Mehta and Naina & Ravi Patel
Countrywide Home Loans
e2e Analytix Inc
Lunch Sponsor
Chakra Restaurant
Tee Shirt and Cap Sponsor
Sudden Inc, Raj Sood
Trophy Sponsor
Jim Riley from Merrill Lynch
Prizes
The prizes for the tournament were given away by Swami Ishwaranandaji.
1st Place Team:
Group # 25: Dr. Arun Keni, Uma Varanasi, Baivik Patel and Mahesh Somani from Bakersfield, CA with a score of 57.
2nd Place Team:
Group #26: Venkat Reddy, William Hines, Carlos Padilla,
Ravi Pendurthy with a score of 58.
3rd Place Team:
Group # 3: Vipul Patel, Tarak Chaudhary, Ben Chang and
Govardhan Reddy from Irvine, CA with a score of 62
Closest to the pin contest:
Hole # 3: Bruce Cleermans
Hole # 17: Anup Kulkarni
Longest Drive contest:
Hole #15: Jayesh M
Hole #9: Patrick Ryan
Youngest participants:
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Bharat Vishnubhotla, age 9
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Tournament Organizing Committee:
Ravi Vishnubhotla
Jaggu Jagannath
Deepak Kulkarni
Tarak Chaudhary
Deepak Krishen
Vikram Torpunuri
Anil Badlani
Shashi Acharya
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Swami Ishwarananda
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