Brandon D?Souza (right) and B.K. Sarma at the news conference in Guwahati on Wednesday. Picture by Manas Paran

Guwahati, Nov. 17: The creme de la creme of Indian golf will vie for top honours at the five-day Indian Oil Servo Masters golf tournament at Digboi Golf Links in Upper Assam from Tuesday.

The event, the eighth leg of the 2004-05 Amby Valley PGAI tour and the sole professional meet in the Northeast, offers a total prizemoney of Rs 10 lakh with the winner alone taking home Rs 1.62 lakh.

The meet tees off with the pro-am event on November 23, while the main four-day competition begins the next day with a 100-strong field, including four golfers from Assam.

The meet, sponsored by Indian Oil brand Servo and managed by the Delhi-based Tiger Sports Marketing, will provide the 23-year-old defending champion Ashok Kumar an opportunity to renew his rivalry with another Asian PGA tour star and Arjuna awardee Shiv Kapur, who missed becoming the first Indian to play in the US Open by a whisker early this year.

B.K. Sarma, executive director of IOC (Assam Oil division), and Brandon D?Souza, managing director of Tiger Sports Marketing, told reporters that the Digboi meet has come of age, evident from the draw list, which figures the top 16 golfers taking part in the Jamshedpur leg of the tour ending on Friday. ?Some great stuff is awaiting the followers of the game in Digboi, which has created a special place among the golfing fraternity for its golf course and hospitality,? said D?Souza, a former golfer and coach.

Sarma said the meet would not only help to project the best of the Northeast, but promote tourism as well. Besides Kumar and Kapur, the meet will also figure three-time Order of Merit winner Mukesh Kumar, former Indian Open winners Vijay Kumar, Ali Sher, Feroz Ali, Asian PGA regulars Digvijay Singh and Gaurav Ghei. Joining them will be Harinder Gupta, Gurbaaz Mann, Uttam Singh Mundy and Rahul Ganapathy. The IOC is sponsoring the meet for the sixth consecutive year.