By V. Krishnaswamy, IANS
Bangalore : Shiv Kapur will join Jeev Milkha Singh in the Asian Team for the prestigious Royal Trophy clash against Europe in Bangkok next month.
The 25-year-old Kapur, a former Asian Games champion, was asked to join the team a few days back and he agreed.
“It is an honour to play for Asia and I certainly am not going to pass up on that chance,” said Kapur. He was playing the Pro-Am at the Global Green Bangalore Open.
“All this means is a shorter year-end break for me, but I will take that gladly for a chance to play with the best of Asia against the best of Europe.”
Kapur has not played on a team event as a professional, though as an amateur he did lead the Indian challenge at the Asian Games in 2002, where India finished fourth, but Kapur won the individual gold medal.
“I was planning to start my 2008 season with the Middle East swing in Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai, but now it means a week earlier in Bangkok,” he said.
The third edition of the Royal Trophy will take place at Amata Spring Country Club outside Bangkok from Jan 11-13. The Asian and European teams play for a rolling trophy, which was graciously donated by the King of Thailand.
Jeev Milkha Singh had already been named into the team. Though Asia lost to Europe, Jeev had a good tournament.
“Both 2006 and 2007 were memorable years for me and victory at the Royal Trophy 2008 would be the perfect start to making next year another one to treasure,” he said. Jeev had rallied from behind to half his team matches but lost his singles last year as Asia went down 12 1/2 to three and a half.
The European team will include Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke, both of who also played last year. They were among the first to be named on the European team. The European team is led by Seve Ballesteros.
“Lee and Darren are obviously the sort of players we need to learn from in order to overcome the Europeans,” Jeev said.
The second edition in 2007 saw massive galleries at the pristine Amata Spring Country Club over three days of the competition in beautiful weather amidst unprecedented media coverage.
The first day of the three-day competition will see four foursomes and the next day there will be four fourball matches and the final day will see eight singles.