CHANDIGARH: The growing tribe of Tricity golf enthusiasts will be regaled with two weeks of Indian and international professionals in action. The Rs 50 lakh Tata Steel-PGTI Players' Championship hosted by the Haryana Government/ Panchkula Golf Club (PGC) tees off on Tuesday followed by the Rs 1.5 crore Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational by TAKE from October 13 at the Chandigarh Golf Club.
Chandigarh lad Ajeetesh Sandhu, who leads the 2022 rankings with earnings of Rs 42.91 lakh, will spearhead the challenge in both the tournaments along with Yuvraj S Sandhu, who lies third in the rankings. Local favourite, Karandeep S Kochhar, will be skipping the Panchkula event but will be back for the Jeev Invitational reckoned as the ‘Indian Major’ on the domestic tour. Kochhar lies 8th in the rankings.
The Players’ Championship is being held at the scenic PGC layout, which plays to a par of 72 and a 7179 yardage, for the fourth year in succession. Defending champion, S Chikka Rangappa, will be there to augment his fine track record on Tricity courses as he is also a winner at the Jeev Invitational when he bested Kochhar in a scintillating play-off in 2018. Interestingly, all four editions of the Jeev Invitational have produced playoffs, indicating how fiercely contested is the prestigious championship named after India's most successful golfer on the international greens who has won 20 titles abroad. This year will see multiple international title winners, SSP Chowrasia, Gaganjeet Bhullar and Rashid Khan along with defending champion Shiv Kapur in action at the Jeev Invitational.
However, the prize fund for the Jeev Invitational, which rivalled the Tata Steel Tour Championship in Jamshedpur until 2021, has been upstaged by the doubling of the latter event's prize fund for 2022 with a whopping Rs.3 crore on offer. This is the highest prize fund ever on the domestic tour till now.
The event at the PGC will feature other top Indian professionals such as the Olympian, Udayan Mane, Khalin Joshi, Manu Gandas and Honey Baisoya along with foreign professionals, Mithun Perera, N Thangaraja, Anura Rohana, K Prabagaran, Jamal Hossain, Badal Hossain, Md Akbar Hossain and Sukra Bahadur Rai.
Col A S Dhillon (retd), GM, Panchkula Golf Club, told TOI, “We thank the Haryana government for sanctioning the conduct of the Players’ Championship at PGC. We have developed the PGC into a top championship venue in the country in a short span of a few years thanks to continued support of the government. We’re confident that the professionals will relish the excellent playing conditions at the PGC.”
The PGC plays to a feel of links golf situated on the banks of the river Ghaggar. The breeze from the mountains and cold winter winds add to the challenge of this layout that features undulating fairways and sprawling greens sporting many a contour, deceptive speeds and wicked slopes.
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