Over 30 companies for the Merchants' cup golf

Kolkata, July 13 (UNI) The seventh edition of Merchants' Cup golf has seen an unprecedented swell with 30 companies participating, making it the hottest mercantile competition as it tees off from July 17 to 20 at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club.

Jaidip Chitlangia, Chairman of this year's Merchants' cup, said, ''This year has seen an unprecedented numer of entries which speaks highly of India's booming economy and defending champions Madhya Bharat Papars Ltd will be hard pressed to stave off the challenge of Williamson Magor Group which have been the winner nine times in a row till they were usurped last year.

''Stiff competition can also be expected from previous champions like Tata Steel, McLeod and Co, Tata Tea, J Thomas&Company Ltd.

New entrants in 'The Telegraph Cup' to be watched out for are Manpasand Manpower Pvt Ltd, The Moran Tea Co (India) Ltd, Usha Martin Limited and Rediffusion Dyr Pvt Ltd,'' he said.

Former national champions Laxman Singh, Alan Singh and Vandana Agarwal have become a regular feature of the event and having participants from Bhubaneshwar, Jamshedpur, Jamalpur, Digboi is truly giving this event an Eastern flavour.

The scoring format of the Telegraph Cup will be a scratch stroke-play competition with players in different handicap categories being permittted to discard their poorest holes. Each will have four players, but not less than three and the best of three strokes will count towards the team aggregate.

UNI