PGTI Tour announces the Kolkata Classic

March 11, 2016: The Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), the official sanctioning body of professional golf in India, today announced the inaugural Kolkata Classic Golf Championship which will be held at the historic Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC) from March 22 to 25, 2016, and will carry a prize purse of Rs. 30 lakh. The Pro-Am event will be played on March 26.

With the launch of the Kolkata Classic, the sports-loving city of Kolkata is now set to host two PGTI events in the 2016 season, the other being the year-ending Tour Championship. The Kolkata Classic is being jointly-sponsored by Manyawar, Goodricke, Halmari, Century Ply, Supertech Engineering, Reliable Group, Duflating. We also have Aauris as the Official Hotel, Balaji Ads as the Outdoor Media Partner & Kingfisher as the Beverage Partner.

The tournament will bring together some of the top names of the Indian sub-continent. The leading Indian professionals would include the Kolkata trio of three-time international winner SSP Chawrasia, 2014 Rolex Ranking champion Shankar Das and current Rolex Ranking leader Feroz Ali Mollah as well as Rashid Khan, Himmat Singh Rai, Shubhankar Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Shamim Khan, Khalin Joshi, Udayan Mane, Ajeetesh Sandhu, Abhijit Singh Chadha and Ashok Kumar, to name a few. The foreign challenge will be led by the Sri Lankan trio of N Thangaraja, Anura Rohana and K Prabagaran.

This is a 72-hole stroke-play tournament featuring a field of 126 players where the cut will be applied after the first 36 holes. The top 50 players and ties will make the halfway cut and continue to play for another 36 holes.

Mr. Uttam Singh Mundy, Director, PGTI, said, “With the launch of the inaugural Kolkata Classic Golf Championship, the PGTI is delighted to host its second event in Kolkata, a city that has been one of the nurseries of Indian golf. The tournament heralds a new chapter for the PGTI as it begins its association with new sponsors.

“The Kolkata Classic provides us an opportunity to further popularize professional golf in Kolkata thus setting the stage for the emergence of new champions from the city that has already produced world-class professionals and international winners such as Arjun Atwal, SSP Chawrasia, Rahil Gangjee and Feroz Ali Mollah. We thank all our sponsors for partnering with us in this event and look forward to making the Kolkata Classic an important stop on the PGTI in the coming years.”

Mr. Abhay Pasari, General Committee Member & Golf Convener, Royal Calcutta Golf Club, said, “It’s a privilege for us to host the Kolkata Classic which is the second professional event to be hosted by the club. The course is in top condition and hopefully will provide adequate challenge to the field.”

The venue for the tournament, the world-renowned Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC), is steeped in history, being the oldest golf club outside of the British Isles, having been established in 1829. It is widely regarded as the founder of the game in the country and has staged some of the most prestigious tournaments on Indian soil, including the Indian Open and the All India Amateur Championship. The 7237-yard course favours long hitters and inaccurate shots are punished severely. The large number of water hazards makes this course a real challenge to master.