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Pressure can affect even the biggest names in the business. Such alas was the case when The Moodie Report and You Tube caught up with King Power Hong Kong Duty Free & Travel Retail Managing Director Sunil Tuli as he played the par 3 eighth hole on day two of the Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup.
There to greet Dubai Duty Free boss Colm McLoughlin and I, as well as Sunil Tuli and his three playing partners, was great Irish professional Des Smyth, a lovely man who has won countless tournaments around the golfing world. Des patiently instructed each foursome on how to play the short but daunting hole across the lake that protected the green from many a golfer on the day.
[Des Smyth and Colm McLoughlin]
Among them was Sunil (pictured third from left below), travel retail’s only known former tea-planter, now turned professional tee planter such is his love of the game. A model of style in his immaculately pressed bright white trousers and dapper Panama hat, he looked like the leading man in a Bollywood blockbuster as he stepped up to address his shot.
But with the cameras whirring as we prepared to capture the moment that Sunil won the ‘Closest to the Pin’ award, something disastrous happened to the finely tuned Tuli swing.
Not only did the wheels come off but the gearbox and engine also disintegrated as the ball flew with all the erraticism of a wounded pheasant straight into a watery grave.
Sympathetically as is always the case with The Moodie Report’s coverage, the moment has been captured forever on You Tube. Click here to view the moment when Sunil Tuli, madly, deeply made a splash in Dubai.