Pune, Feb 03: Feroz Ali would be looking forward to set a unique record on the Hero Honda Indian Golf tour when the Rs 10-lakh Hero Honda Open West begins at the Poona Club Golf Course here tomorrow. Despite the dominating performance of Mukesh Kumar, who has already won ten out of 19 events played on the Indian Golf tour this season, the spotlight will be firmly trained on Feroz Ali, who is yet to win a title in 2002-03. The 33-year-old Kolkata pro has won the Hero Honda Open West for the past three years, and if he wins again this year, he would become the first player in the history of the competition to win the same event four years in succession. A full field of 100 professionals and eight amateurs are expected to tee off for the meet, which will begin with a pro-am tomorrow, followed by the main event to be played over four days.
The competition offers a total purse of RS 10 lakh, with the winner taking home a cheque of Rs 1.62 lakh while the runner-up will be richer by Rs 1.12 lakh. A strong field has descended for the event, including the top-three players on the tour - Mukesh, Digvijay Singh and Feroz Ali.
Other big names expected to take part are twice Honda-Siel PGA champions Arjun Singh and Uttam Singh Mundy, SSP Chowrasia, Rafiq Ali and Asian PGA tour players like Amritinder Singh and Vivek Bhandari.
Bureau Report