11 February 2019: With wind on their sails, a strong contingent of Indian golfers voyage down to the Southern hemisphere for the ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth at the Lake Karrinyup Country Club. Last week’s PGTI TOUR winner, S Chikkarangappa and Khalin Joshi are among those making the journey from Hyderabad to Perth. Shiv Kapur will be back in action alongside Gaganjeet Bhullar and SSP Chawrasia, who will resume their quest for success with some desert sand in their shoes. The latter two have already played the European Tour’s middle eastern swing.
Aadil Bedi, the newly minted Asian Tour professional will celebrate coming through qualifying school with a journey down under. The teenaged Indian golfer will look to make a mark early in his career with a good run among a stellar field of international golfers.
Veterans Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal are also in the field this week as they look to add some more glory to their storied careers in the world of golf.
Fresh from scoring five valuable points at the Hyderabad Golf Club, Chikkarangappa will carry plenty of confidence on his bag when he tees off on Thursday in one of the biggest events of his career. Victories in the Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational and the Golconda Masters were punctuated with a stellar second place finish at the Mauritius Open.
It is a great opportunity too for Ajeetesh Sandhu and Viraj Madappa to underscore their growing prominence among an ever improving bunch of Indian golfers. The Olympics is only a year away and the points that accrue from these joint Asian/European Tour events could prove invaluable as they push their case for an entry to Tokyo 2020.
Justin Harding has been on a tear since he finished third in the Eye of Africa PGA Championship in 2018. He has risen from 734 in the world to a comfortable place inside the top 100. With another top ten finish last week in the ISPS Handa Vic Open, Harding is making a strong case ahead of the Masters in less than eight weeks time.
Harding will look to build on some good form last week. “I played nicely in Hong Kong and Mauritius towards the end of last year and also posted a couple good results in Dubai and Saudi Arabia this year. So I’m just seeing if I can keep riding the wave and momentum and push on,” said the South African.
Asian Tour Inputs
The ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth, which will also welcome 26 Asian Tour champions, combines 54 holes of traditional stroke play across the first three days with an exciting knockout match play format for the fourth and final round.
A regular cut will fall after 36 holes before the field is then further reduced to the top-24 players following 54 holes of regulation play, with any ties for 24th place being decided by a play-off.
Those remaining players will then earn their places in the six-hole shootout.
Any matches tied after the six holes will be decided by playing the new Shootout Hole – a purpose-built 90-metre hole constructed at Lake Karrinyup, with a tee placed adjacent to the 18th fairway and utilising the 18th green.
Indians in the field
Shiv Kapur
Gaganjeet Bhullar
SSP Chawrasia
Khalin Joshi
Viraj Madappa
Ajeetesh Sandhu
S Chikkarangappa
Arjun Atwal
Jeev Milkha Singh
Aadil Bedi
Aman Raj
Chiragh Kumar
Abhijit Chadha
