It is a pleasure to be back in Pune for the Hero Honda Open West. The tournament is surely one of the finest stops on the Hero Honda Indian Golf Tour and I, along with the other pros, love the hospitality and the enthusiasm of the local golfers.To add to it, the Poona Club Golf Course is a delightful facility. It is one of the most challenging of venues and is maintained in good condition. If you look at it today, you can never think that the lightning-fast greens were browns till about 6-7 years back.The Hero Honda Open West is certain to be an exciting tournament. Despite the dominance of Mukesh Kumar there are at least ten players who can walk away with the winner’s cheque of Rs 10 lakh.Hero Honda Motors have been a magnanimous supporter of professional golf in India, and the Hero Honda Open West is one of the three events they sponsor on the Tour. They are also the Tour umbrella sponsor and the company behind the biggest golfing extravaganza of the country - the $300,000 Hero Honda Masters, which is part of the Asian PGA Tour.The players are coming off an extremely interesting tournament last week - the DHL Challenge in Mumbai, which was played on the modified stableford format. The essence last week was to shoot birdies and eagles. However, we are back to strokeplay for the Hero Honda Open West.As for myself, the last week was not good. I cracked my driver during the first round and was never comfortable after that.To conclude I will say without doubt that Mukesh Kumar and Feroz Ali would be the hot favourites. (Tiger Sports Marketing)
