Kolkata, December 22. 2015: The trio of SSP Chawrasia,
Shankar Das and Rahil Gangjee will spearhead a strong local challenge at their
home course, the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC), during PGTI’s season-ending
McLeod Russel Tour Championship 2015, a Rs. 1.5 crore event, which begins on
Thursday.
While Chawrasia and Das are both former champions, Gangjee
is hard to write off on his home turf.
SSP Chawrasia, the champion at the inaugural edition in
2012, has enjoyed a fruitful season on the Asian Tour, having finished fourth
in the merit list. However, the last few weeks have been nothing short of a
roller-coaster ride for him.
First, he narrowly missed qualifying for his first-ever
Major, the 2016 British Open, as he missed the mark by one position at the
Thailand Golf Championship. This was followed by the happy news of his
inclusion in Team Asia for the big-ticket EurAsia Cup next year.
“The year’s been a good one for me as I came close to
matching my best-ever ranking of number three in Asia .
However, the last few weeks have been of mixed emotions. I was first
disappointed to miss out on the British Open after coming so close. But then
making Team Asia for the EurAsia Cup helped me get over the setback quickly.
“I now want to end the year with a flourish on my home turf
since I’m focused and playing well. I changed my driver one month back and that
has helped my game. I see Chikkarangappa, Mukesh and Khalin as some of the top
contenders this week. Chikka is a very aggressive player and could do well
here,” said Chawrasia, a winner of three international titles.
Defending champion Shankar Das sent out a strong signal to
the rest of the field with his team’s triumph at the Pro-Am event on Tuesday.
Shankar, fresh from his win in Assam
last month, will be looking to make gains in the Rolex Ranking, as he is once
again expected to perform well in his backyard.
He lies 10th in the money list with earnings of Rs.
15,48,828 and trails the leader Mukesh Kumar by over Rs. 19 lakh. Since the
winner is set to take home a handsome cheque of Rs. 22,50,000, Shankar still
has an outside chance in the Rolex Player of the Year race depending on how the
leaders perform.
Shankar said, “It wasn’t a great year for me till I won in
Digboi last month. I regained my putting form and confidence with the victory.
At the moment I’m striking it well with the driver and the irons. The one area
I need to improve on is my wedge-play.
“There’s a premium on hitting the fairways here since it’s
not easy to come back if you find the rough. I’ll look to draw inspiration from
my win last year.”
Rahil Gangjee, who safely retained his Asian Tour card with
a 44th place on the Order of Merit, is also eager to make a mark in front
of his home crowd.
“The first half of the year was an average one for me but I
managed to capitalize on some of the big tournaments at the back end of the
season. I’ve won here at RCGC at both the professional and amateur level. I
would love to win this week not only because of the prize purse but also to
have the satisfaction of winning in front of my friends and family.
“My putting has been decent but I need to drive better this
week. One has to get it in play here and once you do that the golf course
becomes easier. If you put it in the rough and trees it’s going to be a very
difficult week. The weather would also be a factor. If it stays overcast and
cold like today, it would make the course play longer,” said Gangjee, a winner
on the Asian Tour.
Besides Chawrasia, Das and Gangjee, the other three
Kolkata-based professionals in the field, Feroz Ali Mollah, Mohammad Sanju and
Divyanshu Bajaj, would also look to take advantage of their local knowledge to
make an impact at PGTI’s blue-riband event.
PGTI Press release
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