Two new events in PGTI`s second half schedule

New Delhi: The Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) today introduced two new tournaments -- McLeod Russel Tour Championship: Race to RCGC in Kolkata and Standard Chartered Open in Sri Lanka -- in its lucrative schedule of the second half of the season.

Over Rs. 7 crore prize money will be on offer in the strong second leg of the PGTI season, which will commence from August 7 with the PGTI Players Championship at the Prestige Golfshire Club in Bangalore. The McLeod Russel Tour Championship, scheduled to be staged at the historic Royal Calcutta Golf Club, will boast a prize purse of Rs. 1.25 crore, the highest ever for any domestic event on Indian soil. The CG Open, BILT Open and DLF Masters are the other big-ticket events and each of them offer Rs. 1 crore as prize money. The PGTI will make its debut in Sri Lanka with the Standard Chartered Open in Colombo in mid-August. The tournament is a significant milestone for the PGTI as it expands the tour`s presence to three countries outside India - Bangladesh and Nepal being the other two. The second leg, which will see back-to-back tournaments up to the first week of December, with a few breaks in between, will also explore two new venues -- the Royal Colombo Golf Club and the Prestige Golfshire Club. The second half will also witness six qualifiers and the national final of the Volvo World Golf Challenge, one of the world`s premier corporate golf tournaments which the PGTI is hosting with Volvo, the `Official Automobile Partner` of PGTI. Commenting on the second leg, Padamjit Sandhu, Director, PGTI, said: "Professional golf continues to consolidate in India and our neighbouring countries. These are testing times, but coming on board of strong partners like Rolex, Volvo, Ten Golf, Coca-Cola, Golf Plus and McLeod Russel is a strong sign for the future of the sport." PTI