By Rahul Banerji
The J&K Open 2021, which tees off at the Royal Springs Golf Course in Srinagar on Wednesday will herald the return of professional men’s golf to Kashmir.
The last professional tournament in the Valley was staged in Pahalgam in July of 2014.
The 2021 event, presented by J&J Tourism with the Professional Golf Tour of India, will carry a prize fund of Rs 40 lakh and has attracted a field of 118 professionals and seven amateurs,
Major push
The tournament is part of J&K Tourism’s initiative to promote golf tourism in the region which has spectacular courses like Royal Springs, Pahalgam Golf Course (Lidder Valley), Gulmarg Golf Club and Jammu Tawi Golf Course.
Top professionals include PGTI Order of Merit leader Karandeep Kochhar, as well as international winners including Rashid Khan, Khalin Joshi, Viraj Madappa and Chikkarangappa S. (a former winner at Royal Springs).
Other leading Indian players in the field are Aman Raj, Kshitij Naveed Kaul and Manu Gandas, to name a few. The foreign challenge will be led by Bangladesh’s Md Zamal Hossain Mollah and Badal Hossain.
The event will also give Kashmir’s golfers like Pawan Parihar, Fayaz Ahmed Langoo and Raghav Wahi and amateurs Sanjeev Dugra, Shabir Ahmad Bhat, Zubair Hasan Zargar, Arsalan Rah, Adnan Rah and Umar Yaqoob Mira a platform for their talents.
Also read: AmEx, Amrutanjan sign up as PGTI tour partners; Q School in Jan.
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