Gurugram (Haryana)[India], September 26 : Leading Indian professional golfers are excited to tee it up at the inaugural Kapil Dev-Grant Thornton Invitational, a tournament announced by Indian cricket legend and PGTI Board Member Kapil Dev and Grant Thornton Bharat last week.
The tournament slated to be played from 27 - 30 September 2022 will be the first-ever full-field PGTI event to be played at the Gary Player Course of the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram. The Gary Player Course, considered one of the most spectacular and challenging courses in the world, is expected to test the skills of all professionals and amateurs.
The tournament will carry total prize money of INR 1 crore and will feature 126 professional golfers to begin with. After two days, the top 50 players and ties will advance to the last two rounds. The tournament will give amateur teams, consisting of golfers, celebrities and corporate leaders, a chance to partner with the pros in Rounds 3 and 4 to compete for separate team prizes. This gives club golfers a unique opportunity to experience what the pro golfers go through in the final two days of a tournament.
The field features Indian golfing greats Gaganjeet Bhullar (11 International Wins) and Jyoti Randhawa (9 International Wins) as well as other leading Indian names including Himmat Rai (a winner on the Asian Tour), Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (4 PGTI Wins), Manu Gandas (4 PGTI Wins), Shamim Khan (15 PGTI Wins) and Abhijit Singh Chadha (3 PGTI Wins), to name a few. The prominent foreign names in the field are those of Sri Lankans Mithun Perera (7 PGTI Wins), Anura Rohana (6 PGTI Wins), N Thangaraja (3 PGTI Wins), Bangladeshi Jamal Hossain (3 PGTI Wins) and Australian Kunal Bhasin (3 PGTI Wins).
Gaganjeet Bhullar, a winner on the Asian Tour this year, said, "It's great to be back on the PGTI where I started my pro career. I'm also excited about returning to the magnificent DLF Golf & Country Club, a venue where I have won in the past. I would like to thank Mr. Kapil Dev and Grant Thornton for putting this event together. I have known Mr. Dev and played golf with him on several occasions. Hats off to him, after having achieved so much in cricket, he is working towards the growth of Indian golf. It'll be fun playing alongside Jyoti who I grew up watching and Yuvraj who has been in tremendous form of late."
Jyoti Randhawa, who has had multiple wins at the DLF Golf & Country Club, said, "I would like to thank Kapil Dev and Grant Thornton for bringing a full-field PGTI event to the Gary Player Course at DLF Golf & Country Club which I feel is among the best courses in the country. The course is very demanding from tee to green. You have to be straight off the tees, be accurate with your second shots and need to negotiate the undulating greens.
"The unique format is something that both the professionals and amateurs are looking forward to. While the amateurs learn a lot tackling the pressure while playing alongside the professionals, we professionals also get to learn a lot about how the amateurs, a lot of whom come from the corporate world, deal with the pressures of their work."