Another winter and another season-ender on the greens as the fourth edition of the McLeod Russel Tour Championship is set to take flight at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club. The top 60 players on the Professional Golf Tour of India will battle it out for a slice of the Rs 1.5 crore prize money pie.
Two of the previous winners of this event have gone on to take their game to the next level this season. Anirban Lahiri, the 2013 winner, has made the world sit up and notice the rise of Indian golf globally. Stalwarts like Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal are admired around the world for accomplishing what they have — coming from a country that boasts fewer golf courses than Florida.
Young Anirban has been on a dream run racking up victories on the European Tour at the Maybank Malaysian Open and the Hero Indian Open. A top 20 finish on the Race To Dubai rankings was ensured after pocketing a cool Euro 1,558,111 in his rookie season. Nothing beats the high of a victory at any level, especially when you have played some fantastic golf during the week. And then there are weeks when despite being on song, you do not quite make it or someone who goes by the name of Jason Day steals the show. The US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits will go into the annals of history where an Indian for the first time finished T5 in a major. The Bengaluru boy’s four under par rounds were another first at a major where he picked up a pay cheque of Euro 338,585.
Making the President’s Cup team added another feather in the cap of this gifted boy who ticked all the right boxes during the season. Just the buzz of being part of a golf team is something, which is incomparable in an individual game. ‘Baan’, as Anirban is fondly called, headed to the Web.com Finals Series and the USD 49,750 prize money over the first two events ensured he locked up his PGA Tour card for 2016 and took some time off.
SSP Chowrasia, the inaugural winner of the McLeod Russel Tour Championship in 2012, was a picture of consistency on the Asian Tour as he occupies the fourth spot. Despite having narrowly missed out on a European Tour victory at the Hero Indian Open over a playoff, SSP carried the momentum deep into the season and had the privilege to start the WGC-HSBC Champions. The two-time European Tour winner missed only one cut on the Asian Tour on his way to earning a prize money of USD 318,472 with one event to go.
The loudest cheers were reserved for the ever-popular Chiragh Kumar, who managed a breakthrough victory on the Asian Tour at the Panasonic Open India worth USD 72,000. His T2 finish at the Venetian Macao Open was worth even more at USD 86,500 where he secured his Asian Tour card for the 2016 season.
On the home front, Chikkarangappa leads the Order of Merit by successfully defending the Take Solutions India Masters on the Asian Development Tour. A top 10 finish in every event he has entered has swelled his earnings to
Rs 26,37,440, leading Abhijit Chadha and Mukesh Kumar going into the finale.
The McLeod Russel Tour Championship is expected to see Shubhankar Sharma and Udayan Mane also in contention to finish the season on a high with them too being in a position to stake claim to the pole position, with their earnings of around Rs 19 lakh, with a top finish. The recent return to form of veteran Jyoti Randhawa, Gaganjeet Bhullar and Himmat Singh Rai, who lost out on a playoff to Sergio Garcia at the Ho Tram Open last week, will also lend an exciting flavour to the biggest event on tour.
— Brandon de Souza
Brandon runs BDMS, an event management company
What: McLeod Russel Tour Championship
When: December 24-27. The Pro-Am is on Dec 22-23.
Where: Royal Calcutta Golf Club
Tee time: The 72-hole stroke-play tournament will see top 60 PGTI ranked professional golfers and 11 sponsor invitees.
Prize purse: Rs 1.5 crore, the highest for a domestic event in India. ?
