The traditional annual INSEAD SIN & IN-BOARD Golf Tournament was held on Tuesday 2nd July 2019 under superb sunny circumstances of the Dutch summer weather. Last year’s winner, Aljosja van Dorssen (MBA1986), hosted a field of nearly two dozen contenders at the Royal Hague Golf & Country Club (“The Haagsche”), which is the leading golf course in the Netherlands and ranks amongst the top 5 in Continental Europe. Given the popularity of this beautiful golf course in Wassenaar (near The Hague), the seven available tee-times were fully booked by the contenders within the first 24 hours!
During the play on the day, the players faced a fairly strong wind on this links course which made good scoring rather challenging. On the other hand, we were graced by an abundance of wildlife including deer, rabbits and raven which tried to steel the sandwiches out of the golfbags of the players. Several of the players nearly run out of balls when they arrived on the 18th tee, as the high rough and blinds shots on several holes caused many balls to be lost.
After the play several rounds of drinks and plenty of bitterballen were consumed before every participant was seated on a long dining table for a lavish three course diner. Just before dessert arrived, Aljosja led the prizegiving ceremony and handed the 1997 victory trophee to Manish Kumar Singh (MBA 2009), who scored no less then 42 stableford points. He was the only player to play better than his handicap which was a great achievement given the tough circumstances. Manish was kindly requested to polish the 22 year old trophee for next year and to add another plateau for new brass plates for the names of the winners for the next 20 years. A final requirement for receiving the trophee was to commit to organizing the INSEAD SIN & IN-BOARD Golf Tournament in the year 2020. As the home course of Manish (Welschap) was not considered to be up to INSEAD standards it was decided that next year’s event will be played on the Eindhovensche Golf Club!