Amateurs head to Kolkata Golf Club

Edited by Anand Datla

Kolkata, November 17: The cream of India’s amateur talent will be on display when the Tata Steel Eastern India Amateur 2014 tees off at the Par-72 Royal Calcutta Golf Club here from Tuesday. This is the tenth leg of the Tata Steel Amateur Golf Tour 2014 season where a field of 84 players will battle it out for winning 60 points on offer in the event to be played over two days of stroke play followed by five rounds of match play amongst the top 32 amateurs.

Leading the competition front is Bengaluru’s Udayan Mane, who narrowly missed out on an Asian Games Bronze Medal in Incheon. He has racked up three wins this season and leads the Order of Merit (OoM) by 24 points over tour veteran Simarjeet Singh who won at the Tata Steel Tamil Nadu Amateur few months back in Coimbatore.

All of the top 15 OoM players are contending this week including reigning Eastern India Amateur Champion Arjun Sharma (No.6), Samarth Dwivedi (No.3) who won the Southern India Amateur 2014 along with Patna’s Aman Raj (No. 5), All India Amateur Champion Pratap Atwal (No. 4) with Karnataka lads Syed Saqib Ahmed (No.8), Trishul Chinnappa (No. 10).

The local eyes will be on Viraj Madappa who has jumped to ninth place on the OoM following his maiden amateur victory at the Tata Steel West Bengal Amateur last week at Tollygunge Club. he has fond memories of playing at Royal Calcutta Golf Club which was where he finished runner up at the All India Amateur in 2012.

Tata Steel, who have taken on the mantle of the title sponsors have truly added steel in the growth and development program of the game of golf. “ We are happy to play host to the prestigious event as a part of a very exciting ongoing season of the Tata Steel Amateur Golf Tour.” Said Farzan Heerjee, Head Corporate Relations, Tata Steel. “We are pleased that our efforts have resulted in producing and nurturing some exceptional talent and we hope to further grow the Tour in the coming seasons.” Added Farzan.

The 6978 yards long Royal Calcutta Golf Club, affectionately known as “Royal” is the oldest golf club outside the British Isles. It was Royal which started the 2nd oldest running golf tournament, the All India Amateur Championship in the year 1892.