Tata Steel PGTI merit leader Veer Ahlawat during a practice round at the TNGF Cosmo Golf Course in Chennai on Monday. Image courtesy PGTI.
By Rahul Banerji
Mysore event winner Shaurya Binu, order of merit leader Veer Ahlawat, and the in-form Manu Gandas lead the field for the inaugural Chennai Pro Championship which tees off at the Cosmo Golf Course on Tuesday.
The Rs 50 lakh event is the latest in the Tata Steel PGTI schedule and will be played in place of the India Cements Pro Championship won by Gurgaon’s Sunhit Bishnoi at the same venue last year.
A field of 126 including 123 professionals and three amateurs will vie for honours on the recently redone course including Asian Tour regulars Rashid Khan and Karandeep Kochhar, Chikkarangappa S., and Udayan Mane, to name a few.
Overseas entrants Sri Lankans N. Thangaraja, K. Prabagaran and Anura Rohana, Jamal Hossain and Badal Hossain from Bangladesh, and Czechia’s Stepan Danek, the PGTI said.
The others are Nepal’s Subash Tamang, Canada’s Sukhraj Singh Gill, South Korea’s Si In Kim, Japan’s Makoto Iwasaki and American Dominic Piccirillo, among others.
The local challenge will be led by professionals Pradyumna Prakash and S. Prasanth as well as amateurs Pranav Nandakumar and former India cricketer Murali Vijay.
“We’re delighted to announce the inaugural Chennai Pro Championship,” said PGTI chief executive Uttam Singh Mundy on tournament eve.
Important stop
“Chennai has emerged as an important stop on the PGTI in recent years thanks to the continued support of the TNGF and N. Srinivasan who has been a great patron. We look forward to an enthralling contest as the competition gets more intense in the second half of the season.”
Added TNGF honorary secretary R.K. Jhaver, “We are extremely happy to host the PGTI tournament for the third year in succession.
“We look forward to a highly competitive week of golf as the challenging layout and conditions at the TNGF Golf Course will test the skills of India’s leading professionals. We at TNGF have worked to provide the best playing conditions and are confident that the players will relish the experience.
“An added attraction for the professional golfers and their families will be the clubhouse, rated by most members as 5-star, and the excellent facilities available which we are sure will be enjoyed by one and all.”
The 18-hole TNGF Cosmo Course is a par-72 6,225-yard layout and is maintained by state-of-the-art machinery and an automated irrigation system with changes made to weather-proof it to the extent possible.
Also read: Rayhan Thomas wins Coimbatore Open on his PGTI debut
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