24 December 2019: A glittering collection of stars have assembled in the quaint old industrial city of Jamshedpur for the Tata Steel Tour Championship. It is the final act of another memorable season on the PGTI Tour and the field consists of just 74 professionals – the top 60 on the order of merit and invitees. Rashid Khan has a comfortable lead on the merit list and seems set to secure the honours at the end of this week. But it is the presence of Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa, SSP Chawrasia and Gaganjeet Bhullar that has brought in some additional lustre to the signature event.
Rashid has enjoyed a brilliant season – three wins on the PGTI Tour and six top tens on the Asian Tour, marked a run of consistency made even more special in the context with his runoffs against an unyielding Delhi Golf Club administration. He will need to finish inside the top two though to force his way inside the top 200 on the end of season OWGR rankings. Indian golf has always had at least one golfer in the top 200 since 2001.
“Tata Steel is committed to the development of sports in India and has always been in the forefront of nurturing and supporting sporting talent,” assured Sanjiv Paul, a vice-president at Tata Steel and the captain of Jamshedpur Golf.
“The association with PGTI is a natural outcome of our shared goal of promoting competition at the highest level of golf. The Tata Steel Tour Championship will see the top professionals of the country in action and it promises to be an engaging four days in Jamshedpur,” he said.
“We have made improvements to the golf course to make it more challenging and one of the best layouts in India. It is only befitting that top players of the country are participating in this year’s edition.”
Galaxy of stars
Interestingly, Jeev has never played in Jamshedpur before through an illustrious journey stretching nearly thirty years. The Golmuri Club, one of the two golf courses run by Tata Steel will play venue to the event. There shall be no cut applied at the event. Among the invitees, Randhawa is the most recent entrant at an event in Jamshedpur. He finished runner-up in the 2011 Tata Open, the last time he played in the city. Chawrasia has been a three-time winner of the Tata Open (2003, 2005 & 2006), but along with Bhullar hasn’t played in Jamshedpur in a dozen years.
“The blue-riband event of the Tata Steel PGTI calendar promises to be a delight for golf fans as some of the leading stars of Indian golf including legends such as Jeev, Jyoti, S.S.P. Chawrasia and Gaganjeet will be in action at the magnificent Golmuri Golf Club,” said the CEO of the PGTI Tour, Uttam Singh Mundy.
“The tournament will also have the added excitement of the race for the Order of Merit title.”
Order of merit on the line
Karandeep Kocchar has been in fine form recently and has to be among the favourites this week for the prestigious title and the healthy winner’s cheque. The order of merit though could turn out to be a race between Rashid Khan and S Chikkarangappa, the top two men on the list at the start of this week.
The winner collects Rs. 24,24,750 and the difference between Rashid and Chikkarangappa is Rs. 15,99,872 meaning that the race is still wide open. If Chikkarangappa wins the tournament, Rashid will need to secure at least a third-place to secure the order of merit.
A pro-am event will be played on Wednesday ahead of the main event which runs from 26th through 29th December.
