Shamim Khan to be in action at Open Golf championship at Chennai

Chennai: The country's top golfers will be seen in action in the Chennai Open golf championship 2018, which tees off at the Madras Gymkhana Club golf annex here tomorrow.

In addition to prominent Indian professionals, golfers from abroad including Sri Lanka, South Africa, Bangladesh and Australia will be participating in the second edition of the tournament, Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) CEO Uttam Singh Mundy told reporters here.

The top Indians in the field include Shamim Khan (2017 PGTI Order of Merit champion), defending champion Mukesh Kumar (winner of the 2016 edition);
Syed Saqib Ahmed (2018 PGTI Order of Merit leader), Shankar Das, M Dharma, Harendra Gupta and Feroz Ali Mollah, among others.

The foreign challenge will be led by the Sri Lankan quartet of Anura Rohana, Mithun Perera, N Thangaraja and K Prabagaran apart from Australia's Kunal Bhasin, Bangladesh golfer Md Zamal Hossain Mollah and South Africans Albie Hanekom and Romano Saincic, he said.

The local challenge comprises Chennai-based professionals, rookie Shivnaren Srinivasan, Sandeep Syal, C Ilayaraja, C Arul and Selvaraj P.

The other golfer from Tamil Nadu is Vashista S Pawar of Coimbatore.

The tournament, which will see the participation of 123 golfers, carries a prize purse of Rs 30 lakh.

The winner will take home Rs 4,84,950.

The event concludes on March 4.

In the Pro-Am event, former Davis Cup player Somdev Devvarman and cricketer S Badrinath were the main attractions.

The winning team with a score of 52.9 was led by Vikranth Chopra (professional).

The others in the team were Badrinath Kidambi, Nilesh Kumar Singh, and Prabhol Mukherjee.