Edition 2 of Glade One Masters tees off from Tuesday in Ahmedabad

By Rahul Banerji

With the International Series Thailand teeing off on March 3 and a number of India’s top golfers entered, the Glade One Masters provides a good opportunity for others to make a mark.

The Rs 40 lakh event in Ahmedabad’s Glade One Resort & Club provides for an unusual format. It is a 54-hole event and the field plays the nine-hole course twice in each round after the cut.

The first two rounds will comprise nine holes each. After 18 holes the cut will be applied. The third and fourth rounds will then comprise 18 holes each.

Last week’s winner at the Gujarat Open, Karandeep Kochhar is in Thailand for the $1.5 million Asian Tour event along with 14 others who hold direct entries, while five others are in various reserve categories.

This gives the regulars on the Tata Steel Professional Golf Tour of India a chance to pick up cash and valuable Order of Merit points, especially with the DGC Open scheduled in Delhi towards the end of March.

In all there are 126 entered for the Glade One Masters.

Gary Player design

The Glade One championship golf course designed by Gary Player is a testament to the versatility of the world’s leading golf course design firm, the PGTI noted.

The nine holes has been meticulously crafted giving them a unique character while striking a balance between aesthetics, strategy, playability and leisure.

The event field includes the likes of Abhijit Singh Chadha, Kshitij Naveed Kaul, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu, Manu Gandas, defending champion Om Prakash Chouhan, Akshay Sharma and Arjun Prasad.

Overseas players in the field are Sri Lankan Mithun Perera, Nepal’s Sukra Bahadur Rai and Bangladeshis Md Muaj and Md Somrat Sikdar.

The local challenge will again be led by Varun Parikh, Anshul Patel, Jay Pandya, Shravan Desai, Arshpreet Thind and Anirudh Kamireddypalli.

The Gujarat-based amateurs in the field are Rajiv Vasa, Tamanjot Singh Sandhu and Islam Khan.

Bhullar returns

Meanwhile, reports asiantour,com, Gaganjeet Bhullar will make a return to a continental event in Thailand hoping to overcome a tough couple of years.

Bhullar, who turns 34 in April and is a new dad is keen to rediscover the form that caught the attention of the golfing world more than a decade ago.

“I’m coming out with a new mindset. New season, new mindset. It’s like starting from scratch,” Bhullar told the website ahead of this week’s International Series Thailand .

In 21 starts last year, he managed just two top-10 finishes and missed as many as 11 cuts.

Further frustration came when he contracted Covid in early 2022 and could not participate in the back-to-back Singapore events that brought the curtain down on the Asian Tour’s 2020-21 season.

Although he arrives in Hua Hin 546th in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), Bhullar insists he’s back on the right path.

“By 2013 I’d reached a good level and wanted to get to the highest Tours,” he said.

“That didn’t happen. But I am still confident of getting to where I want to. I am hopeful of soon getting back to where I was with my game. I feel my best is yet to come.”

Already one of the Asian Tour’s most successful players – he is fifth in the all-time list since 1995 – Bhullar follows Thaworn Wiractchant (18 wins), Thongchai Jaidee (13) and Scott Hend and Prayad Marksaeng (both 10).

Bhullar’s last Asian Tour win, his ninth, came at the Fiji International in 2018.

Also read: Steady 70 sees Kochhar through in final round of Gujarat Open