June 30, 2014. Jeev Milkha Singh and three other Indian players will be contending at the Alstom Open de France this week. The Open de France is the oldest national open in continental Europe and shall be played at Le Golf National, just outside of Paris, beginning on Thursday. Gaganjeet Bhullar, who finished T-33 at the BMW Open last week, Shiv Kapur and SSP Chowrasia are the other three Indians expected to play the event. Graeme McDowell is seeking to become the first man since Jean-François Remésy in 2005 to successfully defend the title.
Milkha Singh makes the tournament, by virtue of his victory at the Scottish Open in 2012. The Indian will look to get his game back on the rails, having missed the cut last week at the BMW International Open. Jeev and the rest of the Indians, with the exception of Bhullar, failed to make the weekend in Cologne.
Bhullar will travel to Paris, by virtue of having finished inside the top 110 in last year’s Race to Dubai among a large collection of golfers who make the tournament as a category 10 participant. Bhullar will look to build on his strong showing last week in Germany.
Shiv Kapur is a category 13 participant at the event, having enjoyed a strong run last year on the European Challenge Tour, where he was inside the top 15 golfers. Since finishing T-23 at the US Open, Kapur has missed cuts at the Irish Open and the BMW International Open.
Chowrasia finished just outside the top 10 at the Laguna National in May, but that joy has been tempered by a missed cut at the Lyoness Open earlier this June. The Kolkata golfer could do no better than 75 in the first two rounds in Austria, but will hope to perform at a much higher level in France this week.
The 98th edition of this prestigious event will play out at Le Golf National at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines between 03rd and 06th July. The event carries a prize fund of €3,000,000 with the winner taking a neat €500,000 to the bank.
