City’s greens to host tee party
This is the second edition of Hyderabad’s only professional golf tournament. A total purse of 40 lakh is up for grabs. The winner will be awarded 6 lakh while the runner-up will get 4 lakh. Six amateurs from Hyderabad — Hardik Chawda, Rahul Ajay, Ramana R
Top domestic and international professional golfers will be seen in action in Hyderabad from Thursday, vying with each other for top honours in the second edition of the Golconda Masters Golf Championship, which will be played in Hyderabad from February 25 to 28.
On Wednesday, a pro-am competition will be organised. The previous edition was the first-ever professional golf tournament held in Hyderabad.
The `40 lakh prize money tournament will be held in the strokeplay format, and will be played for 72 holes over four rounds of play at the Hyderabad Golf Course. The winner will be awarded a cheque for `6 lakh while the runner-up will take home `4 lakh.
The top 50 golfers from the first two rounds will make the cut for the final two rounds.
Professional Golf Tour of India, (PGTI) the governing body of professional golf in India, partnered with the Hyderabad Golf Association for their professional golf championship in the city. In addition to the rich heritage surrounding the golf course, the well maintained fairways and greens are expected to delight the players.
The tournament will witness 120 leading professional golfers from India and neighbouring countries as well as six local amateurs.
The top Indian professionals in the fray include defending champion Harendra Gupta, Rolex Ranking leader Feroz Ali Mollah, Shubhankar Sharma, Khalin Joshi, Udayan Mane, Mukesh Kumar, Shamim Khan, Shankar Das, and Abhijit Singh Chadha.
The foreign challenge will be led by the Sri Lankan trio of Anura Rohana, N. Thangaraja, K. Prabagaran, and Australia’s Kunal Bhasin.
The six local amateurs who will be rubbing their shoulders with the professionals include the young Hardik Chawda, Rahul Ajay, Ramana Reddy, Rohan Reddy, Sashidhar Reddy and Ananth Sridhar Reddy.