The Solaris Chemtech Open raises the curtain on some excellent golf in store for Delhi?s golfing fraternity. The European Tour?s Emaar Indian Masters is scheduled at the Delhi Golf Club next week, while the highly prestigious Johnnie Walker Classic follows at the end of the month. And that is not all, another Asian Tour event – the Sail Open Golf Championship has been confirmed for the 20th- 23rd February 2008, a week before the European, Asian and Australasian tour?s tri-sanctioned Johnnie Walker Classic.
The Solaris Chemtech Open – an event on the PGTI Tour – saw some of the country?s leading professional golfers participate in the tournament. Singapore?s Lam Chih Bing, Australians Unho Park and Craig McLean joined the likes of Gaurav Ghei, Rahil Gangjee, Arjun Singh, SSP Chowrasia, Digvijay Singh and Gaganjeet Bhullar. The Rs. 30 lakh event is the third tournament to be hosted by the Avantha Group and even though the prize money is paltry in comparison to the events that will follow, the tournament was an ideal warm-up – quite literally – for the country?s leading professionals. However, local golf enthusiasts will have to wait for another week to see Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa and Shiv Kapur in action.
Ernie Els, Thomas Bjorn, Mark O?Meara, Darren Clarke will lead the star cast at the Emaar Indian Masters which will also feature top Indian professionals. This will be an ideal platform for the local professionals to match their skills against some of the best in the world but Jyoti Randhawa will undoubtedly have an advantage as the Delhi Golf Course is a favorite hunting ground for the Gurgaon-based professional and the reigning Indian Open champion, who has won two Indian Open Championships there in the last two years.
The Sail Open Golf Championship, which will be held at the Jaypee Greens Golf and Country Club in Greater Noida is a new Indian event on the Asian Tour and will see participation from Arjun Atwal and Jeev Milkha Singh among others.
The Johnnie Walker Classic is also a much-awaited event. Because we have never had an event of such stature in India – this is not just a European Tour event, but is counted amongst the best. As a result it attracts the best in the game and is one of the biggest tournaments to be held in the first half of the year!
So the coming month promises lots of golf, most of it of a standard we have never seen before. The Europeans have discovered the potential this country has as a great golf destination and it is just a matter of time before the PGA Tour takes an active interest as well.
This is obvious from an invitation that Jeev Milkha Singh received recently – he is headed for the 2008 US Masters. The leading Indian professional golfer on the European Tour received an invitation from the organizers and is already practicing hard in order to leave an impression and card a good finish at his favorite major championship and the first of the year.