Stakes get higher at Indian Open

Jyoti Randhawa, Gaurav Ghei and Shiv Kapur will lead the home challenge at the $400,000 tournament to be held in October

NEW DELHI: Though the Indian Tour continues to be in disarray due to the rift between the Indian Golf Union and the sponsors, the Indian Open is still on course. The Open is the showcase of Indian golf and attracts big-time prize money.

The stakes will be even higher for the 2006 chapter, to be held in the Capital from October 19-22. This year’s prize money will be $400,000, $100,000 more than the previous year.

This was announced at a press conference held on Thursday by the Asian Tour officials and Hero Honda, the sponsors of the Indian Open.

The stars’ parade in the Indian Open will be led by three top European tour winners, Andrew Coltart, Simon Dyson and Graeme McDowell. Dyson, who’s from England, won the Indonesian Open in March and the KLM Dutch Open in a sudden-death play-off in August this year.

The Scotsman Coltart was part of the 1995 Alfred Dunhill Cup winning team along with Colin Montgomerie and Sam Torrance. McDowell hails from Northern Ireland.

However, there’s some bad news for home fans, who had been patiently waiting for the face-off of the two major stars of Indian golf, Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal, in the Indian Open. Neither is available as they have “commitments elsewhere”.

Jeev will be putting on the Japanese Tour while Atwal, who maneouvres his career from the US, has preferred to play in Orlando after a poor display here in the 2005 Open.

But trying to make up for the duo’s absence will be former champion Jyoti Randhawa, old war horse Gaurav Ghei and the star in the making, Shiv Kapur, who had an outing in the British Open earlier this year. Ghei was the surprise runners-up at the last year’s chapter, which was won by Thailand’s Thaworn Wiratchant.

Kapur, a gold medal winner at the 2002 Asian Games, and Ghei are currently playing in the Taiwan Masters. Randhawa is away in England to play the World Golf Championships-American Express Championship where top Asian golfers are getting an opportunity to play against the elites, including Tiger Woods.