Thaindian News

Bangalore, Feb 22 (IANS) The Karnataka Golf Association course here will host the Louis Philippe Cup featuring 10 teams that will fight for prize money of Rs.1.24 crores - the biggest purse on the Indian tour - from March 5 to 10.

The unique format of the tournament will see 30 top professionals representing the 10 teams, besides an equal number of amateurs who will play in the Pro-Am category for the first two days of the tournament for the Inter-City Pro-Am Cup.

Star Indian players who will be seen in action include Asian Tour winner Anirban Lahiri (Puravankara Bangalore), three-time Indian Open champion and former Asian Tour No. 1 Jyoti Randhawa (DLF Gurgaon) and winner of Singapore Classic Himmat Rai, two-time European Tour winner SSP. Chowrasia (Take Chennai), the 2002 Busan Asian Games individual gold medallist and Asian Tour Newcomer of the Year, Shiv Kapur (3C Delhi) and two-time Asian Tour winner Gaganjeet Bhullar (Dev-Ellora Chandigarh).

Each city team will consist of three players, two of whom have been selected on the basis of their 2011 Rolex Rankings as of December and the third player by the sponsor.

The cities selected to field teams are: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkota, Lucknow, Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh and Noida.

Commenting on the exciting development in Indian golf, Padamjit Sandhu, Director, PGTI, said: “This is an important new innovation in format in professional golf and could potentially be a game changer in the way fans relate to India’s top golf stars.

“We would like to thank Louis Philippe and Rishi Narain Golf Management for creating this new event on the PGTI Tour and we know that India’s top players and members of the PGTI are excited to participate in the tournament, rooting for their team to finish at the top.”

Gaurav Ghei, a veteran of 20 years on the Indian and other international tours said:

“As professional tour players, we don’t get many opportunities to play team formats and it does add an entirely new exciting dimension to the game.

“On the global golf platform, the most appealing events for fans and players alike are team events like the Ryder Cup (USA v Europe); the President’s Cup (USA v Rest of World outside Europe), Royal Trophy (Asia v Europe) and Dynasty Cup (Asia v Japan).

“We enjoying playing in team events and fans are extremely excited to watch and cheer for their teams.”

From the semi-finals onwards, the top four teams will play in Matchplay format. One-on-one matches between the three players of each team will earn each team one point for a win and zero for a loss.

No match will be halved and tied matches after 18 holes will be decided on the basis of sudden-death playoff. The two winning semi-finalists will go head-to-head in the finals March 10.