Dhaka, January 23: The Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) will tee off its 2018 season with the inaugural City Bank American Express Dhaka Open which is scheduled to be played at the Kurmitola Golf Club in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from January 24th - 27th.

The season-opener worth BDT 50 lakh (approx. INR 40 lakh) will be tri-sanctioned by the PGTI, Asian Development Tour (ADT) and the Bangladesh Professional Golfers Association (BPGA).

While the local challenge will be led by Bangladesh's two leading golfers, two-time Asian Tour winner Md Siddikur Rahman and Md Zamal Hossain Mollah, the tournament will also feature some of the top Indian professionals such as Shamim Khan (2017 PGTI Order of Merit champion), Sujjan Singh (a former winner on the Asian Development Tour), Shankar Das, Honey Baisoya, M Dharma, Harendra Gupta and Feroz Ali Mollah, to name a few. The other big name in the field is that of Sri Lankan Mithun Perera.

Uttam Singh Mundy, CEO, PGTI, said, "At the start of the new season, I wish all the players a very successful 2018 and welcome all the rookies on the tour. The PGTI's sustained efforts, over the past 11 years, to build a robust structure for professional golf in India, have borne fruit in recent times in the form of the numerous international wins achieved by Indian golfers. In 2018, the PGTI looks forward to further building on these gains.

"We are delighted to begin the year with an international event which is being held in partnership with the ADT and the BPGA. We hope to continue working in tandem with the Asian Tour and the ADT in order to ensure that the City Bank American Express Dhaka Open flourishes into one of the major events of the South Asian region in the coming years."

The venue for the tournament, the Kurmitola Golf Club (KGC) was established in the mid-1950s and moved to its present site a decade later. The KGC is Bangladesh's premier championship course and has staged many international events. The course known for its tree-lined fairways and plenty of intimidating water hazards is likely to pose a serious challenge to the professionals.