By IANS
New Delhi : After a gap of four years, star golfer Jeev Milkha Singh will be seen in action along with defending champion Jyoti Randhawa at the Hero Honda Indian Open to be held in the Delhi Golf Club Oct 11-14.
Apart from Jeev and Randhawa, the tournament will see a host of top stars like 2005 winner Thaworn Wirachant of Thailand, Liang Wenchong of China, Australian Peter Senior, and 2004 champion Mardan Mamat from Singapore.
Arjun Atwal, struggling to retain his PGA Tour card and faltering even in the nationwide tour, will be missing the action. Of the 120 participants, 46 places are likely to go to Indian golfers.
“It is with great enthusiasm that we look forward to the 44th staging of our national Open. Everything is in place for another memorable week of golf and on behalf of the Indian Golf Union, I would like to extend my hand in appreciation to Hero Honda and Delhi Golf Club,” said Army Chief Gen. J.J. Singh, the president of the Indian Golf Union, here Thursday.
To make the tournament more attractive, the organisers have decided to increase the prize money from $100,000 to a record $500,000.
“The participation of top players, $500,000 as prize money and live telecast of the event – all these together certainly make the Hero Honda Indian Open the most eagerly awaited golfing event in the country,” said Hero Honda chief executive officer Pawan Munjal.
The year 2007 marks the third successive season that Hero Honda has title sponsored the tournament, which was inaugurated in 1964 when Australian legend Peter Thomson was triumphant.
All eyes will be on Jeev since he will play at home for the first time after his phenomenal 2006 season. The Chandigarh golfer won the Asian Tour Order of Merit crown last year.
Jeev started last year by ending a frustrating seven-year winless drought with victory at the Volvo China Open. He went on to win the Volvo Masters in Spain in October and then back-to-back titles in Japan at the Casio World Open and the Golf Nippon Series JT Cup.
The Indian Open is India’s oldest running international sporting competition and for the past five years has been staged at the Delhi Golf Club.