PUNE: Defending champion Kshitij Naveed Kaul, alongwith domestic stalwarts such as Mukesh Kumar and Shamim Khan, will vie for top honours when the the fifth edition of the Pune Open Golf Championship tees off here on Wednesday.
The Rs 40 lakh event, which will be staged at the Poona Club Golf Course, is the last full-field event of the TATA Steel PGTI's 2020-2021 season before the season-ending TATA Steel Tour Championship. The tournament will feature leading Indian names such as Manu Gandas, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu, Om Prakash Chouhan, Akshay Sharma and Amardeep Malik, to name a few.
The international challenge will be led by Sri Lankans Mithun Perera, Anura Rohana, N Thangaraja and K Prabagaran, Bangladeshis Md Zamal Hossain Mollah and Badal Hossain as well as Australian Kunal Bhasin.
The host city will be represented by Gurki Shergill (a former winner on PGTI), Pravin Pathare, Sameer M Shaikh, Rajiv Datar, Sagar Raghuvanshi, Jaideep Patwardhan, Sunil Baburao Galfade and Rajaram Baburao Shinde as well as amateur Rohan Dhole Patil.
"This year there is the added excitement of the Pune Open being the final PGTI event before the season-ending Tour Championship later next month. With spots in the top-60 for the Tour Championship up for grabs, one can expect intense competition as the players would be vying for those spots and their exemption for next year," PGTI CEO Uttam Singh Mundy said.