PUNE, Oct 18: PGTI regulars, including Olympian Udayan Mane and former Asian tour winner Rashid Khan, will look to put up a good show when they tee off at the Pune Open Golf Championship beginning here on Wednesday.
The Rs. 40 lakh tournament will return for its sixth edition at the Poona Club Golf Course with the field comprising 126 players, including 123 professionals and three amateurs.
Besides Udayan and Rashid, some other leading names such as Ajeetesh Sandhu, Viraj Madappa, Veer Ahlawat, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu, Manu Gandas, Varun Parikh and Om Prakash Chouhan will also be participating in the event.
Former champions Kshitij Naveed Kaul (2019), Anura Rohana (2017) and Harendra Gupta (2016) will also be seen in action here.
Besides Sri Lankan Anura Rohana, the other international names include Sri Lankans Mithun Perera, N Thangaraja and K Prabagaran, Bangladeshis Jamal Hossain, Badal Hossain and Md Akbar Hossain and Nepal’s Sukra Bahadur Rai.
The host city of Pune will be represented by professionals Rohan Dhole Patil, Gurki Shergill (a former winner on PGTI), Pravin Pathare, Sameer M Shaikh, Rajiv Datar, Sagar Raghuvanshi and Sunil Baburao Galfade as well as amateurs Aaron Rockey and VP Vimal Dev.
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.
“I always look forward to playing in my hometown Pune as it gives me an opportunity to spend time with my family as I’m otherwise travelling for most part of the year.
“The season has not been great for me to be honest unlike the past season but I feel that I’m just getting warmed up now. The game, mindset and work ethic is there so it’s just a matter of time before I get back to my best.” (PTI)
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