By Rahul Banerji
The Tata Steel Professional Golf Tour of India’s 2022 season opens with the second edition of the Gujarat Open Golf Championship in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
The tournament carries a prize purse of Rs. 40 lakh. It will be played at the Kalhaar Blues & Greens Golf Club and has attracted a 126-strong field, the PGTI said.
The tournament certifies Gujarat’s stature as a golfing centre as it is home to courses like Kalhaar, Kensville GCC, Gulmohar Greens GCC, Gaekwad Baroda Golf Club, Aalloa Hills Resort, Belvedere GCC and Glade One GC.
Thanks to the plethora of courses on offer for business and leisure travellers, there is great potential for golf tourism in Gujarat.
Golf tourism has in recent years emerged as a special segment worldwide and the Gujarat Open presented by Gujarat Tourism provides the state an opportunity to tap into this potential.
The tournament field will include 123 professionals and three amateurs.
Quality field
It will feature some top names including Olympian and 2021 PGTI Order of Merit champion Udayan Mane, Karandeep Kochhar, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu, Manu Gandas, Kshitij Naveed Kaul and Abhijit Singh Chadha, among others.
The foreign challenge will be led by Sri Lanka’s Mithun Perera, Australia’s Kunal Bhasin, Nepal’s Sukra Bahadur Rai and the Bangladesh quintet of Md Akbar Hossain, Md Muaj, Md Somrat Sikdar, Md Sayum and Md Shakhawat Hossain Sohel.
The local challenge will be fronted by Varun Parikh, Anshul Patel, Jay Pandya, Shravan Desai and Arshpreet Thind.
The local amateurs in the field are Rajiv Vasa, Dhruv Suri and Rachit Mankoti.
“As Gujarat is home to some of the best venues in the country, there is huge potential for it to become one of the leaders in golf tourism,” noted state tourism secretary Hareet Shukla.
“The staging of the Gujarat Open Golf Championship presented by Gujarat Tourism in partnership with PGTI is an initiative aimed towards boosting golf tourism in Gujarat.”
Added PGTI chief executive U.S. Mundy, “We’re excited about beginning the season with the Gujarat Open at the magnificent Kalhaar Blues & Greens.
Good stage
“The tournament will play an important role in promoting Gujarat as a golfing destination. We wish the players all the best, welcome the rookies on the tour and look forward to a highly competitive season.”
A good number of graduates from the PGTI’s Qualifying School are in the field including event topper Varun Parikh of Ahmedabad.
“I’m excited about playing the Gujarat Open as it’s always a treat to play in Kalhaar, one of the top championship venues in India,” Mane said.
“I play at Kalhaar quite regularly and it is almost like a home course for me. I’ve also won at this venue in the past and that adds to my confidence this week.
“It’s a course where the approach shots demand a lot of precision. I would like to carry forward the momentum from last year’s Order of Merit win.”
Also read: Varun Parikh tops PGTI Q School as 40 earn full tour cards
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