An Indian avalanche, that is what it is going to be like on the Asian PGA Tour this year. The big guns, Arjun Atwal, Jyoti Randhawa and Jeev Milkha Singh may only make the occasional appearance on this tour, but there will be so many others. Chances are the 2004 season, may see yet another Indian find his place on the Asian golfing pantheons. |
Indians are a big force to reckon with in Asian golf. The chairman of the Asian PGA is an Indian "" Pawan Kant Munjal "" and almost every year, there has been an Indian on the APGA Board as a player's representative. |
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And now with the Asian PGA going through a tenuous relationship with its commercial partners, the players on the tour led by India's Amandeep Johl have formed an interim board comprising five players to take control of the tour. |
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They have the backing of the existing sponsors and the co-sanctioned events are safe with the European PGA standing behind the players. |
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As the main season got underway this week at the Thailand Open eight Indians "" the squad did not include Atwal or Randhawa "" descended on the Thai capital. |
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And leading the Indian pack after the first round was Uttam Singh Mundy in the fifth place overall and Harmeet Kahlon was tied for eighth. |
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What they do over the weekend is another matter, but what it does make clear is that any of the leading dozen Indian golfers are capable of pulling off a win any week on the Asian PGA Tour. |
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Mundy, a fairly successful star on the Indian domestic tour, a past winner of the Indian PGA and two-time champion at the Surya Masters in Kathmandu, last week travelled to Johor Baru in Malaysia to play in the Qualifying School final stages to try and get full playing rights. |
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"The idea was to be able to play as many events as possible. This year with the APGA deciding to have a re-ranking system and a new category, which placed Q-School qualifiers in a higher category than country exemptions, it was worth going to the School and get into the top 40," Mundy told this writer during the course of his final round. |
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At tied 13th Mundy finished as the best Indian at the Q-School, which saw no less than ten Indian starters. Four of them, led by Mundy got the card. |
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The others were young Ashok Kumar, Gaurav Ghei, winner of the APGA event, Gadgil Masters in 1995, and Vivek Bhandari, once a top tenner in the Asian Order of Merit, but who after being hit by injuries has been struggling. |
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Apart from the foursome which earned a full card in Johor, there is a clutch of Indian players like Amandeep Johl, Arjun Singh, Harmeet Kahlon, and Vijay Kumar who are all capable of finishing in the top three in any given week. |
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Kahlon and Kumar have won once each in APGA events "" both in India "" while Johl and Singh have more than once come within handshaking distance of winning. |
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Then there is a group comprising Digvijay Singh, who was leading the field after three rounds at the Hero Honda Masters, Mukesh Kumar and Amritinder Singh, all of whom missed making the card in Malaysia. |
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Add to them youngsters like Rahil Gangjee and Gurbaaz Mann, who also failed in Malaysia, and Rahul Ganapathy and Sandeep Syal, who did not make the trip. |
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And this group of 15-odd golfers shows that Indian golf has indeed come off age. The Indians are the biggest and strongest group after the Koreans on the APGA. |
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Ashok Kumar, who tied for 20th place with Ghei and two others, is not sure how often he will play on the APGA Tour, but he sure relished the performance of making it among the big guys. |
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"It was a great experience. I will surely go for some tournaments and make a mark. But I also want to consolidate my position as No 1 on the Indian Order of Merit," he says. |
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The 22-year-old, who turned pro 21 months ago, has already won twice on the Indian tour, and just a week before the Q-School, moved to the top of the Indian Merit List, ahead of seasoned players like Mukesh Kumar, S S P Chowrasia, Mundy, Ghei, Bhandari, Johl, Arjun Singh, not to speak of Atwal, Jyoti and Jeev, who hardly play in India. |
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As the tournaments unfold over the next few months, make no mistake, there will be more and more Indian names appearing on the leader boards. |
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