Sandhu back on home turf for Players C’ship title defence

By Rahul Banerji

Defending champion Yuvraj Singh Sandhu gets an opportunity to get his season back on the rails in familiar territory at the Players Championship presented by Chandigarh GC from Wednesday.

While the Tata Steel PGTI’s 2022 and 2023 seasons have taken different trajectories, last year from four completed events, Sandhu was already a repeat winner, He and Order of Merit topper Manu Gandas thereafter dominated the season sharing 11 victories in all.

This year, the tour has not even come close to seeing a repeat winner even though the Indian Open and two Challenger Tour events have taken place so far.

Patna’s Aman Raj has been the most consistent with a win and a top-five that give him second place on the standings.

The opportunity is thus there for Sandhu to make the most of home conditions. Added incentive comes from the boost in prize purses across the board this season and the entire field will be keen to cash in with the summer break looming.

All four Indian winners of the season so far – Sachin Baisoya (Players, Tolly), Raj (Gujarat Open), Om Prakash Chouhan (Black Bull Challenge) and Gaurav Pratap Singh (Delhi-NCR Open) – will line up on the opening tees on Wednesday.

Large field

In all, 123 professionals and three amateurs will vie for honours at Chandigarh including Raj, defending champion Sandhu, Udayan Mane, rankings leader Chouhan, Sachin Baisoya and Gaurav Pratap, among others.

The overseas challenge will be led by Sri Lankans Mithun Perera, N. Thangaraja, Anura Rohana, and K. Prabagaran, Jamal Hossain, Badal Hossain, and Md Akbar Hossain from Bangladesh.

Besides them, Varun Chopra, and Tejas Sinha of the US, Nepal’s Sukra Bahadur Rai, Canadians Sukhraj Singh Gill, and Minwoo Park, Japan’s Makoto Iwasaki and Andorra’s Kevin Esteve Rigaill are in the field.

Other top golfers from the Tricity participating include Sujjan Singh, Abhijit Singh Chadha, Akshay Sharma, Aadil Bedi, Harendra Gupta, Angad Cheema, Harmeet Kahlon, Amandeep Johl, Ranjit Singh and Amritinder Singh.

Chandigarh GC captain K.S. Sibia,said, “With an impressive prize purse on offer and a strong field contending for the title, the members at the Chandigarh Golf Club can look forward to a very exciting week of golfing action.

“We have worked towards providing the perfect playing conditions which will test the skills of the best golfers in the country.”

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