December 9, 2013. Mumbai will witness few of the top amateurs from various countries battle it out for the prestigious 113th Tata Steel Amateur Golf Championship of India from tomorrow. The high-status event, which enjoys the distinction of being the second oldest golf tournament in the world after the British Open, returns to Mumbai after a gap of seven years when the prestigious event tees off at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club from Tuesday.
The 113th edition which begins from Dec 10 and concludes on Dec 15 will witness team and individual contests as the tournament opens with an international stroke-play competition on the first two days which will also act as qualifying cum seeding exercise. Apart from the capped players, close to 60 individual entries have been received for the qualifying rounds.
The international team event which will see competition from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and hosts India will be followed by 32 qualifiers battling it out on match-play format over the next four days with the two finalists competing for the title over a 36-hole contest on Sunday. Apart from the crowning moments of the most coveted title, the National Open champion stands to gain invites to many international events.
On the competition front, the hosts boast of a strong contingent and clearly stand out as the hot favourites. Udayan mane who is fresh from the victory in Tata Steel Jharkhan Amateur where he won with a record score of 21-under par, Manu Gandas and Viraj Madappa who helped the Indian team annex the Asia Pacific Junior Golf Championship couple of days ago and Karan Taunk make a strong combination.
Sri Lanka which has always fielded a strong team in the earlier editions will be the team to watch out for. The Himalayan country of Nepal consists of young turks in Bikash Bogati and Dinesh Prajapati a product of the Surya Nepal Junior golf development programme. Although they are short in international exposure, they have to heavily depend on sheer talent which they have amply shown on the domestic circuit just with a couple of years of induction into the programme.
Bhutan’s fortunes are led by Dechen Ugyen who had impressed Nick Faldo himself with his talent while he had played the Faldo Series.
