Panasonic Open India moves to Classic GCC

By Rahul Banerji

Even though it handed Khalin Joshi his breakthrough Asian Tour title last year, the Delhi Golf Club will not host the upcoming edition of the $400,000 Panasonic Open India later this year.

Instead, the Classic Golf and Country Club near Gurgaon will be the venue of the event which returns to the Asian Tour for its ninth consecutive edition from November 14 to 17.

With the DGC greens under renovation and having proved to be a less than ideal venue last year with pockmarked and sandy greens, it is the turn of the picturesque Classic course to play host this time.

An eye-opener of a venue when it was first launched, the Classic Golf and Country Club is the first Jack Nicklaus signature golf course in South Asia and has an 18-hole championship course besides a 9-hole Canyon Course.

It is also the venue of the world’s lowest 72-hole score when Thailand’s Chapchai Nirat a 32-under-par to win the third of his four Asian Tour titles 10 years ago, at the now defunct SAIL Open in 2009.

Blistering stuff

According to the Asian Tour website, Chapchai, then 25, opened with two consecutive 10-under-par 62s before signing for a third-round 65 and a final-round 67, thanks to a closing birdie which helped him claim a commanding 11-shot victory.

Before that, the Classic Golf and Country Club hosted the Indian Open in 2000 and 2001 and on the last few years, has ben the venue of several tournaments Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) events.

The Panasonic Open India, held for eight years at the DGC, saw the likes of Anirban Lahiri (2011), Digvijay Singh (2012), Australian Wade Ormsby (2013), S.S.P. Chawrasia (2014), Chiragh Kumar (2015), Mukesh Kumar (2016) and Shiv Kapur (2017) emerge champions, besides Joshi last year.

Good stage

Since his national Open win, Lahiri has bagged a further six titles and also topped the 2014 Asian Tour Order of Merit championship. He is now a regular on the flagship PGA Tour.

Said Cho Minn Thant, Asian Tour Chief Operating Officer, “We are very excited to return to the Classic Golf and Country Club for the ninth staging of the Panasonic Open India. It has been 10 long years since we last held an event on that course and to head back to a course where Chapchai set a world record is exciting for us.

“Since its inauguration in 2011, the Panasonic Open India has produced many worthy champions over the years. We hope that we can continue to unearth new talents through this event,” Cho added.

Added B. Hariharan, managing director of Landbase India Limited which owns and operates the venue, said: “We are delighted that the prestigious Panasonic Open India is being staged at the Classic Golf and Country Club and we look forward to working with key stakeholders to make this a memorable event.”

Panasonic Swing

Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the PGTI, the tournament forms part of the Panasonic Swing, an aggregate point race across five events where players have an opportunity to shoot for a share of the lucrative bonus pool.

Kapur topped the inaugural 2017/18 Panasonic Swing ranking with a total of 2922.90 points, thanks largely to his victory at the Panasonic Open India, his first Asian Tour victory on home soil and second win in 2017.

Kapur went on to win his fourth Asian Tour title at the Royal Cup in Thailand a month later to become the first and only player to win three times on the Tour that season.

The Panasonic Open India has been dominated by Indians since its inception. Australian Ormsby remains the only overseas winne, back in the 2013 edition.

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