Arjun makes himself comfortable on course

Showing a keen eye for the course he said that the golfer who plays the difficult holes well will win the title. ‘‘If the guy who consistently card pars on the 5th, 9th, 12th, 13th and the 18th holes will hold aloft the trophy,’’ he added.

Besides the Indians, the national championship will see foreign participants like South Africa’s Abraham Jacques Coetsee and Richard Pape, Malaysia’s S Murthy and V Arumugam, Australia’s Steve Kent and the Bangladesh trio of Chand Mia, Babu Ahmed and Norul Islam Ghani.

However, they will face strong competition from the locals. There is the Order of Merit leader Mukesh Kumar, third-placed golfer in the Indian Open Digvijay Singh and the Hero Honda Masters winner Harmeet Kahlon.

Meanwhile, Vijay Kumar who did not enjoy much luck on the Asian tour where he participated in the Volvo China Open and Acer Taiwan Open will be looking to gain some. Two-time champion Uttam Singh Mundy, Indrajit Bhalotia, Vivek Bhandari, Feroz Ali and Gaurav Ghei are some of the players to watch during the week.

SSP leads Pro-am win

Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia’s team consisting of Ini Bawa, Sandeep Jhalani and Mohit Gujral won the stableford competition. Chowrasia shot a one-under 70 to contribute 37 points, while Jhalani was the star of the show, accumulating 41 points. Vijay Kumar and his team of Harinder Bansi, AP Kala and Chitaranjan Bakshi were runner-up with 114 points, while Sheeraz Kalra’s team of M Sato, T Togawa and Uma Sinha were adjudged second runners-up.