Tata Open golf to begin from Thursday

Top professional golfers of the country will vie for top honours in the 12th Tata Open to be teed off at Beldih and Golmuri golf courses here from December 19.
A total of 118 professionals, including top 10 golfers in the Rolex ranking and six amateurs, will be seen in action during the five-day meet, hosted by Tata Steel and Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), organisers said today.
The prize money for the event is Rs 50 lakh, he said, adding that the meet would be preceded by Pro-Am, which will commence tomorrow.
Defending champion Mithu Perera of Sri Lanka, former champions Mukesh Kumar, Shamim Khan and Vinod Kumar, and leading Indian professionals like Rashid Khan (current Rolex ranking leader), Chirag Kumar, Harendra Gupta, Shankar Das have already confirmed their participation.

Sri Lankans N Thangaraja and Anura Rohana, Kunal Bhasin of Australia, Nepal's Shivaram Shrestha and Bangladesh's Md Zamal Hossain Mullah will be the other foreigners to watch out for, besides Perera.
The winner will get Rs 8.08 lakh, the first and second runners-up would be richer by Rs 5.58 and Rs 3.13 lakh, respectively.