The SRF All-Indian Matchplay Championship, with the new format since last year, gets underway at the Delhi Golf Course tomorrow. The DGC, which provided the country’s leading professionals with excellent playing conditions during the recent Indian Open, will now play host to the 64 professionals — the winner of which will be decided over five rounds.The added attraction this year will be the participation of Jeev Milkha Singh and 2003 Asian Order of Merit leader Arjun Atwal, both of whom happen to be in the country this week. While two-time European tour winner Atwal has earned his top seeding this week, Jeev is placed second. They are followed by Indian tour’s order of merit leader Mukesh Kumar and Digvijay Singh in that order.Though Atwal and Jeev have been given pride of places — they are ranked No. 1 and 2 this week — for their performances abroad, the consistent Arjun Singh is surprisingly placed eighth. The two-time Honda Siel PGA champion tied for a second-place finish at the Volvo Masters last year and is currently ranked in the top 20 on the APGA Order of Merit. Over and above, he has several good performances on the Asian tour.Arjun trails Vijay Kumar and SSP Chowrasia, both of whom have two victories this season and Amandeep Johl — he has one victory on the Indian PGA tour this season — occupy the fifth, sixth and seventh rankings. Furthermore, Gaurav Ghei is ninth this week, while Uttam Singh Mundy is 10th, even though Ashok Kumar and Feroz Ali, who are ranked 11th and 12th for the SRF Matchplay, are currently ranked fourth and third on the PGA of India’s order of merit.The rankings of the players notwithstanding, the charm of the matchplay will be its unpredictability as top seeds have often fallen to unseeded players. Take the case of Jeev. He fell to Simran Singh, the man who has nurtured Chandigarh’s youngsters in their formative years. For his efforts Simran, the first gentleman professional, received his Lifetime Achievement award at the Express Power Golf in Chandigarh yesterday.Atwal also experienced the same when he lost to Suleman Ali in the opening round last year. Unlike strokeplay events, matchplay favours those who are currently in better form. And double bogeys, which usually mar the scorecard, can often be overlooked as the players can make up for one bad hole by winning the next. So consistent game will not be the order of play this week as participants will try and hit out in search of eagles and birdies.
