But as the whispers turned louder, first one head and then another turned and froze.

Ernie Els had finally decided to show his weather-beaten face with a hop across from the Oberoi Hotel next door, and for a moment for Delhi’s golf guild, there seemed to be no bigger star.

The tournament’s title-leader is probably used to such receptions and there was the small trophy unveiling business to be dealt with as the spell finally did break.

Tight schedules might not allow a lot of sightseeing, but the trophy serves up a slice of the Capital — a wooden India Gate — that the prodigal sons Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal, and the amused bunch of Darren Clarke, Mark O’Meara and David Howell joined Els in the first presentation of.

Then it was on to the tenth tee finally, for the first vision of that famous swing as the three teams lined up for the challenge match. The greensomes format paired the Big Easy with Atwal, Jeev with the Tiger Woods’ neighbour O’Meara and the easy smiling-hardly talking Clarke with Englishman Howell.

But even the crowd of young pros and wannabe ones, sport aficionados and star-struck caddies that formed the trail of the six found its cynics.

“The format is boring, I think I want a cup of coffee,” said one, as the pack made it halfway through the back nine, clearly not yet on terms with the DGC demons.

A fair bit sprinkled out into the bushes, and some edgy putts in the fast-falling dusk ensured there was no magic and a few sniggers from the DGC regulars in the crowd. No oohs and aahs yet.

Birdies finally over the nine holes could be counted in single digits, and the scores finished on the wrong side of the level par. It was the Els-Atwal pairing that walked away with the one-stroke win, one-over to the other two groups’ two-over each.

Hopefully the best has been reserved for Round One.