By Rahul Banerji
Edition six of the Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational presented by TAKE will tee off at the Chandigarh Golf Club on Wednesday with a star-studded field contesting for the Rs 1.5 crore prize purse.
The field this year features Jeev along with international winners including Rahil Gangjee, Rashid Khan, Tata Steel PGTI Ranking Leader Om Prakash Chouhan, Khalin Joshi, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu, Sujjan Singh and Himmat Singh Rai.
Others in the field of 127 professionals and three amateurs are leading Indian names such as Aman Raj, Udayan Mane and last week’s winner Jairaj Singh Sandhu, also a Chandigarh product, the PGTI said.
“It’s one of the most eagerly awaited weeks of the year for me as hosting an event named after myself is always special,” Jeev said at the event launch.
“The Invitational has gone from strength to strength over the years and I expect the sixth edition of the event to be another memorable experience for players and golf fans alike.”
Joint effort
The Invitational was jointly launched by TAKE Sports and Tata Steel PGTI in 2018 to honour the pioneering and vastly-experienced Jeev Milkha Singh.
The tournament is being staged at Jeev’s home course, the Chandigarh Golf Club, for the sixth year in succession.
The overseas challenge will be led by Sri Lankans N. Thangaraja, Mithun Perera, Anura Rohana and K. Prabagaran.
Jamal Hossain, Badal Hossain and Md Akbar Hossain of Bangladesh add to the numbers as do US golfer Varun Chopra, Nepal’s Sukra Bahadur Rai, Canadian Sukhraj Singh Gill and Andorra’s Kevin Esteve Rigaill.
Prominent names from Chandigarh besides Jeev include the in-form Akshay Sharma, Aadil Bedi, Abhijit Singh Chadha, Angad Cheema, Harendra Gupta, Ravi Kumar, Harmeet Kahlon, Amandeep Johl, Gurbaaz Mann, Ranjit Singh and Amritinder Singh, to name a few.
Jeev is the first Indian professional golfer to have a PGTI event named after him.
Sterling record
He entered uncharted territory over two decades back when he became one of the first Indian golfers to taste success at the international level. Since then, he has added many more firsts and Indian records to his name.
The much-decorated golfer is the only Indian to have won the Asian Tour Order of Merit twice (2006, 2008) plus multiple titles on the DP World Tour, Japan Golf Tour and Asian Tour and has 14 Major appearances to his credit.
Jeev has also achieved a career-high world ranking of 28, an Indian record. He is now a regular on the Senior Tours in Europe and Japan.
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