Golf: McLeod Russel Tour Championship to start on December 21
Kolkata, Dec 11 (IANS) : The McLeod Russel Tour Championship 2017, the PGTIs year-ending championship will kick off at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC) here from December 21 sans defending champion Thailand’s Pariya Junhasavasdikul, who has now become a pilot.
Pariya became the first foreign golfer to win the Championship last year driving home the overnight two-shot advantage with an unwavering final round of one-under 71 for a wire-to-wire winning tally of 15-under 273.
But the organisers informed that he is now a commercial pilot and despite inviting him to take part in this year’s meet, he could not make it.
“He is now a pilot. I am not sure, maybe with Thai Airlines or something. But we asked him to take part this year as well, he could not make it. He always wanted to pursue his career as a pilot,” said Uttam Singh Mundy, CEO of PGTI.
A strong field including two-time winner on the PGA Tour of Australasia Adam Blyth, two-time winner on the Asian Tour Md Siddikur Rahman and winner on the Asian Tour Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura will take part in the Championship.
Besides Australian Blyth and Kawamura, the strong foreign contingent also has the likes of Australian Daniel Fox (winner on the PGA Tour of Australasia), Japanese golfers Shotaro Wada and Yuwa Kosaihira and Singapore’s Choo Tze-Huang.
The event will see the top 50 players from the PGTI Order of Merit 2017 compete for the biggest prize purse of the season.
Besides the top names on the Order of Merit, the field will also feature sponsor invites which will include a host of top Indian stars such as Jyoti Randhawa, former champion SSP Chawrasia (2012 champion), Rashid Khan, Chiragh Kumar, Rahil Gangjee, Chikkarangappa (2015 champion) and Shubhankar Sharma (newly-crowned Joburg Open champion).
The tournament carries an attractive prize purse of Rs. 1.5 crore, the highest for a domestic event in India.
The meet will be a 72-hole stroke-play championship and there will be no cut applied after 36 holes.
All players will be guaranteed prize money. The Pro-Am event preceding the tournament will be played on December 19 and 20.
“We’ve had an extraordinary 2017 PGTI season with the likes of youngsters Udayan Mane, Honey Baisoya and Khalin Joshi raising the bar and competing hard against the seasoned professionals such as Shamim Khan, Harendra Gupta and Mukesh Kumar.
The McLeod Russel Tour Championship provides a fitting finale to this highly competitive season as the PGTI Order of Merit crown will be up for grabs with multiple contenders vying for the honour during the week,” said Uttam Singh Mundy.
The RCGC golf course will be faster than previous editions this time, General Committee Member Gaurav Ghosh said.
“This time it was kept open during monsoons as well. Generally we keep it closed. So the greens are expected to be faster than last year. It won’t be easy for the competitors,” he said.
