December 25, 2013: The top 60 players on Rolex Raking will compete for top honours at the McLeod Russel Tour Championship 2013. The PGTI’s Year-Ending Championship is being held at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC) from December 26 – 29, 2013. The tournament’s prize purse of Rs. 1.35 crore is the highest-ever for a domestic event in India.
The second year of event will see the top 60 players from the PGTI’s 2013 Rolex Rankings along with five sponsor invites vying for the McLeod Russel Trophy. The tournament will be a 72-hole stroke-play championship and there will be no cut applied after 36 holes. All players will be guaranteed prize money.
The top-60 includes the likes of Rashid Khan (current Rolex Rankings leader), Shamim Khan (2012 Rolex Rankings champion), rookies Chikkarangappa S and Angad Cheema (both currently in the top-5 of the Rolex Rankings), Chiragh Kumar (2011 Rolex Rankings champion) and Mukesh Kumar, to name a few. The five professionals playing on sponsor invites are defending champion SSP Chowrasia, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Anirban Lahiri, Jyoti Randhawa and Rahil Gangjee.
There are eight foreign players in the field and the prominent names among them are Md Zamal Hossain Mollah (Bangladesh), N Thangaraja (Sri Lanka), Mithun Perera (Sri Lanka), Shivaram Shrestha (Nepal) and Kunal Bhasin (Australia).
The eight Kolkata-based professionals in the fray are SSP Chowrasia, Rahil Gangjee, Shankar Das, Feroz Ali Mollah, Divyanshu Bajaj, Rafick Ali Mollah, Raju Ali Mollah and Mohammad Sanju.
“We hope this will help the young golfers in taking the next steps in realizing their full golfing potential. We will be on the lookout for budding golfers in the future as well,” Aditya Khaitan, Managing Director, McLeod Russel, said.
