Heading into the final stretch

The Business Times Corporate Golf League enters its final leg at Tanah Merah Country Club's Garden course on Friday.

Multi-winners Team SunMoon have taken the perch in the Open Category table, but can they hold on as the finish is expected to be tight with the chasing pack, Tat Hong - The Crane Boomers and Team Citi, breathing down their necks?

Also in Category A, a close finish is expected as only a point separates Gayatri and Team Boss. This week, we take a closer look at three of the Category A teams.

"Nice Guy" Ng is a strategist

He is popularly known as "Nice Guy", as his surname suggests. But when it comes to golf competition, Tat Hong - The Crane Boomers' captain Michael Ng means business.

As pioneers of The Business Times Corporate Golf League, Ng and his team are passionate about the popular competition.

In the eight years of the event, Tat Hong have never finished champions, but they have always been in the top half of the final table.

As the competition closes in on its final leg on Friday, Tat Hong, currently lying second and five points behind leaders Team SunMoon, sense a final flourish.

Ng, 60, the Asean CEO of the heavy machinery and equipment company that specialises in cranes, said: "My job is to motivate the players, now that we are comfortably placed. My guys are ready for the final round and, hopefully, SunMoon slip up."

Key players in the Tat Hong team are Michael Lew, Victor Yew, Allan Choo and Lucas Tran, but not all are always available for the six legs.

Part of Ng's job scope with the company is to formulate business strategies and charting strategic direction. As such, in the BT Corporate Golf League, which calls for strategising because of players alternating and handicap revisions, his input is a key factor in Tat Hong's fortunes.

Boustead aim for decent finish

With a points high of 109 from the last leg at Warren, Team Boustead have ascended the 12-team table to joint-third spot.

But the 2015 champions harbour little hope of a dream finish after the final round of the six-leg event this Friday at Tanah Merah Country Club's Garden course.

The team's popular choice as captain, Adrian Chu, feels that the nine-point gap between them and leaders Team SunMoon is too much, but is still hopeful of a decent finish.

This despite the team being hit by non-availability of key players, some of whom are away on business.

"We are strapped for players, but there is nothing we can do about the players on duty away. We will make do with the golfers who are available and see what happens," he said.

The bubbly Chu, a 22-handicapper, has to put himself down to play on Friday because of the player shortage.

Their key players are Brian Seah (handicap index 9) and Clinton Ang, a tournament regular who plays around handicap index 12.

Encouraged by their affable chairman and group CEO Wong Fong Fui, the global engineering services and geo-spatial technology group would be happy with a decent finish on Friday.

Popular Harish a familiar face to all

His smile is infectious, his mannerisms gentle and his demeanour charming.

There is not a time when Harish Nim, 58, can have a quiet time as people want to engage him in dialogue and banter.

The CEO of Emerio came from India almost 25 years ago, but he is as Singaporean as anyone's next-door local neighbour.

Having fallen in love with the city, the engineer from the famed Indian Institute of Technology, who is also armed with an MBA, took up citizenship and moved his family here. There is still a tinge of the Indian accent, and the hardworking CEO of Emerio, an IT services company with operations across several countries, is always on the move.

Entrepreneurial skills wrap the dedicated Harish, and the big plus about him is that he is passionate about any chosen vacation.

So is it with his golf, as evidenced by his band of players for the BT Corporate Golf League who compete with a zest and enthusiasm that is praiseworthy and worth emulating.

Team Emerio have been strong supporters of the competition, having entered a side for the last seven years. Their best-ever finish was third, but that is besides the point for captain Harish and his band.

"We are here to compete professionally and, more importantly, we want to enjoy, have fun and mix around well with the business colleagues and corporate players of other teams," he said. "We are happy that we are in the top half of the table, and hope to finish as high as we realistically can."

Team Emerio's key player is Allan Loh, a low single handicapper, but the bearded Harish believes that his whole squad have contributed one way or the other in the team's realistic target of a top-half finish.