Impressive line-up for match-play News Archive News

MUMBAI, Feb 2: Till the last season, it was probably one of the most awaited tournament of the Indian PGA. This was thanks to two things,...

Written by Girish Karkera

February 3, 1999 12:00 AM IST

3 min read

MUMBAI, Feb 2: Till the last season, it was probably one of the most awaited tournament of the Indian PGA. This was thanks to two things, first the prize-money and second the format of play. Though a stagnant economy has managed to cut to size what was the highest winner’s cheque– Rs five lakhs– on the circuit once upon a time the turn up for the Crompton Greaves All-India Matchplay golf tournament is proof enough that it is still one of the most sort after events of the Wills Sport Golf Tour.

In the field of 64 professionals teeing-off tomorrow at the par-70 Bombay Presidency Golf Club here are leader of the Indian order of merit Vijay Kumar, Reigning Indian Open champion Feroz Ali, Chandigarh’s Jyoti Randhawa and defending champion Indrajit Bhalotia.

The latter had pipped Chandigarh’s Amritinder Singh on the final hole to wear the winner’s green jacket, a la Augusta Masters. Bhalotia however was very critical of an encore. “I am playing the matchplay but don’t know for how many days,” he said at theend of the Navy Golf Pro-Am which concluded on Sunday. Bhalotia is in the middle of a swing change and going by his performances in the few odd tournaments he has played this season a mammoth task lies ahead of him.

And if form is any indication of success then Lucknow pro Vijay Kumar, seeded one, could well be the man. The 30-year-old has had four wins this season, the maximum by anyone on the circuit so far. Infact he has been so consistent that most of his other finishes have been very close on the heels of the winner.

But unlike the normal strokeplay event wherein one has four rounds, the matchplay format will see golfers pitted against each other. And one bad round could very well spell doom.

Among those to be watched will be Calcutta veteran Basad Ali, who sprung a coup over Vijay and kith Feroz Ali to win the Navy Pro-Am on the final day.

The Rs 10 lakhs event spread over six days will see the pros battle out in the knockout stage right from the very first round. Till the semi-finals the winnerwill be decided over 18 holes with the final being played over 36 holes.

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The champion here pockets Rs 1.75 lakhs, quite a comedown from last year but impressive nevertheless. The runner-up gets Rs 1.1 lakh.

Whom the seeds play(prefix denotes seedings):

1 Vijay Kumar (Luc) vs Mohd Maqbool, 2 Shiv Prakash (Kan) vs Dinesh Raghuvanshi (Mhow), 3 Ali Sher (Del) vs Santosh Kumar, 4 Basad Ali (Cal) vs Gursimran Singh Sethi, 5 Mukesh Kumar (Mhow) vs Rajesh Rawat, 6 Feroz Ali (Cal) vs Manohar Dighe, 7 Sanjay Kumar vs Shamim Khan, 8 Indrajit Bhalotia (Cal) vs KPS Sekhon.

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