Star-studded welcome to Indian Open

The star cast for the event promises to attract enough enthusiasts to the course, despite it being almost 50 km outside Delhi. Yeh Wei Tze, the Chinese Taipeir golfer, who stunned everybody by winning the Malaysian Open, a jointly sanctioned event by the European PGA and the APGA, heads the field.

The foreign field will also include James Kingston, recent winner of the London Myanmar Open, where India’s Gaurav Ghei finished third, Kyi Hla Han of Myanmar, the Asian Player of 1999 and Thai Prayad Marksaeng, winner of the Casino Filipino Open last month and the Indian Open runner-up last year.

The Indian challenge will be led by Arjun Atwal, the reigning champion, and Feroz Ali, who won it the year before. Also in fray will be Jyoti Randhawa, two-times winner of the Hero Honda Masters, Gaurav Ghei, winner of the 1995 Gadgil Masters and more recently winner of the Rs. 20 lakh Wills Masters in Calcutta and Ali Sher, who won the Indian Open twice in 1991 and 1993.Indian tour’s giants, Vijay Kumar, the winner of the Order of Merit for two years in a row, Basad Ali, Shiv Prakash and veteran Rohtas Singh. There is also talk that Jeev Milkha Singh, the firrt Indian to figure on the European PGA, has also been lured in for the tournament after a gap of three years.

As has now become a practice the tournament will be preceded by a Pro-Am event on March 15 and the main tournament will get underway on March 16. The top 65 and ties will make the cut and the winner will pocket US $ 50,010 and the runner-up US $ 33,000.