Randhawa, Ghei, Ashok lead strong field at DLF Masters

Gurgaon, May 9 (UNI) India's red hot ace golfers Jyoti Randhawa and Gaurav Ghei will head one of the strongest field's ever in a Indian Tour event when they tee up at the Rs 65 lakhs DLF Masters at the DLF Golf and Country Club from tomorrow.

In a 120-strong field, apart from leading Indian golfers, ten international professionals including Singapore's Lam Chih Bing, who will play in the prestigious British Open this year, alonwith Australians Richard Blackwell, Craig Mclean and Kunal Bhasin, will aim to get their club swinging nicely for them with a winner's purse of Rs 10,53,000 on offer.

The players will also look to improve their position in the PGTI Order of Merit list with Ashok Kumar leading the pack with earnings of Rs 38,52,000, followed closely by Jyoti Randhawa with Rs 21,06,000 and S S P Chowrasia at Rs 1,94,3000.

Ghei, who is fresh from the Pine Valley Beijing Open victory, last week's Crompton and Greaves champion Ashok Kumar, Kolkata talent S S P Chowrasia, Mukesh Kumar, Harmeet Kahlon, Uttam Singh Mundy and promising rookies Ganganjeet Bhullar and Chirag Kumar will look to leave a lasting impression on the challenging course.

The golfers will also have to be upto the challenge of playing on the lines of world-renowned AT&T Pebble-Beach Pro-Am and the Dunhill Linka Championship, where 50 out of the 120 golfers to make the cut after 36 holes, will each team up with the creme-de-la-creme of country's leading corporate golfers over the weekend for a separate team championship in a four-ball strokeplay.

Randhawa, who is currently ranked 77th in the world, said,'' We started by playing in the Indian Tour and we will continue to play tournaments in the country to lend our support.'' Asked whether an Indian Tour will get to see all the country's top golfers -- the Jeevs, Atwals, Gheis and himself competing at the same event, Randhawa said,'' All of us are keen to make it happen. Atwal, Ghei, Jeev and myself have spoken to each other and all of agreed it will happen soon.'' Ghei, however, was not so sure how the unique format will work out in the next four days. He says ''Just hope the amateurs are educated enough to know where to draw the line.'' But he hastily went on to add, ''Again you have to start somewhere. I think its an interesting concept. I am hoping I don't get to partner a tough amateur.'' Always keen to do his bit for the promotion of Indian golf, Ghei said,''We have to strike a balance between bringing the foreigners here for an Indian Tour to increase the competition level and giving sufficient exposure to our boys.'' Talking to reporters, Bing lauded PGTI's efforts and said, ''I always look forward to coming to India as I love this place.

Its nice to welcome foreigners like us so warmly like the way India does.'' Amandeep Johl, Digvijay Singh, Amardip Malik, Vijay Kumar, Rahul Gangapathy, among others will also look to impress and provide a tough fight to the more experienced and famous pros in the event.

UNI