By IANS
Srinagar : The one day TAG Heuer-Kingfisher precision golf tournament was teed off here Sunday by the Tourism Minister Mohammed Dilawar Mir at the Royal Springs Golf Course.
The high profile tournament, being attended by former captain of Indian cricket team Kapil Dev and CEOs of many companies, is part of the government's pro-active campaign to woo golfers and tourists to the Kashmir Valley – a home to some of the world's best turfs and also the highest golf course in world at the famous hill resort of Gulmarg.
The tournament is being held in the Valley for the third consecutive year as around 86 golfers, most of them from outside the state, began putting on the lush green turf on the eastern bank of sprawling Dal Lake.
Priyanka Chopra, the bollywood actor, who was recently launched as the lady brand ambassador by TAG Heuer, is also expected here Sunday.
"Today's tournament is being played with the short gun start and the game would last for around three to four hours," Renuka Keron, the marketing director for TAG Heuer India told IANS.
"Our participants are from World Presidents Organization (WPOs) and Young Presidents Organization (YPOs)
"All the participants will then join us for lunch being hosted by the state Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at the Royal Springs Golf Course," Keron said.
Sanjay Sharma of Swarosky Crystal, Pashupati Advani, Suresh Bhojwani and Vikram Mehta are also among the putters.
TAG Heuer, a Swiss company, are one of the world's leading manufacturers of luxury watches since 1860.
Tourism has started picking up in the Kashmir Valley and so far this year more than 70,000 tourists have already arrived here.
Encouragingly, the high spending foreign tourists have also now started returning to Kashmir after many European countries withdrew adverse travel advisories that had asked their citizens not to visit Kashmir.