Hard greens greet Indian Open participants

CALCUTTA, MARCH 9: Most of the leading golfers who arrived in Calcutta for the Wills Indian Open feel the greens of the Royal Calcutta Go...

CALCUTTA, MARCH 9: Most of the leading golfers who arrived in Calcutta for the Wills Indian Open feel the greens of the Royal Calcutta Golf Club are harder than normal. “Perhaps that is because the city has had no rains for some time now,” Jyoti Randhawa, who is the highest Asian PGA Tour ranked Indian player here, said. Randhawa finished eight in Dubai recently, a place ahead of Mark O’Meara.

He feels the RCGC has really “picked up” in the last three years. “Not much different from a world standard course,” was how he described the RCGC. However, he feels that the re-laid 10th green is little unfair to the golfers. “It is very narrow and you can land in any of the two bunkers if you misss the green.” Randhawa expects anything between eight under to 15 under as the winning score in the four round tournament on the par 72 course.

Other leading golfers would not put such a wide winning margin. Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand, the 1997 Asian player of the year and Kang Wook-Song of Korea, currently theAPGA Tour leader both believe that the winning score would be 15-under. Last year, Firoze Ali had won the tournament with a 14-under. However, as Korea’s Choi Kyung-ju pointed out, it was a wet Indian Open last year with rains ruining a part of the tournament, making it difficult for players to get adjusted. For Thailand’s Boonchu Raungkit, a former APGA Order of Merit leader, the Indian Open should prove to be a tough competition.

The starting field on March 11 will have 151 players teeing off. The list includes five top Indian amateurs with Harmeet Kahlon rated highest among them. The cut will be made after two rounds with 65 players remaining in the fray. All the top 65 will get a share of the prize money with the winner taking home a cheque for $50,100. The 65th placed player will get $900. Three players from the top 10 in the APGA Order of Merit and 25 from the top 40 will be seen at the RCGC over the four days.

Tomorrow, the pro-am event will be played with celebrities like Kapil Dev, Roger Binnyand Ajay Jadeja adding glamour to the event. The pro-am will be a team event with three amateurs and a professional forming a team. The best two scores of each team will be considered. The pro-am, apart from adding colour to the event, will allow the professionals to have a feel of the RCGC course before the main action begins.