New Delhi, April 16: The Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), the official sanctioning body of professional golf in India, will be staging the inaugural Paramount Golf Foreste Delhi - NCR Open Golf Championship 2018 at the Noida Golf Course from Tuesday (April 17 - 20). The tournament which is the seventh event of the PGTI's 2018 season, carries a prize purse of Rs. 30 lakh. The Pro-Am event is scheduled for April 21.
The tournament will feature some of the top professionals of the South Asian region such as Indians Shamim Khan (2017 PGTI Order of Merit champion), Himmat Singh Rai, Viraj Madappa, Honey Baisoya and Shankar Das, as well as Sri Lankans Anura Rohana and N Thangaraja and Bangladesh's Md Zamal Hossain Mollah. Baisoya will head into the tournament as one of the top favourites. The Delhi lad will look to carry forward his last week's performance after he romped to a seven-shot victory at the Pune Open. The 21-year-old currently sits on top of the Order of Merit, with Thangaraja second on the table.
Two prominent foreign players in the field are Australia's Kunal Bhasin and South African Damian Naicker. The host city of Noida will be represented by professionals Amardip Sinh Malik, Gaurav Pratap Singh, Vikrant Chopra, Rahul Bajaj, Arjun Singh Chaudhri, Pradeep Kumar, Dipankar Kaushal and Raju Singh.
Ashwani Prakash, Executive Director, Paramount Group, said, "The sports of Golf, besides having its importance in the world of sports, has attained its own importance in the corporate world also. We take pride in associating with an event of this magnitude in Noida which will not only see a lot of professional golfers visiting the city but also give a chance to budding golfers to interact and learn from them."
Meanwhile, Uttam Singh Mundy, CEO, PGTI, said prior to the start of the tournament, "We are delighted to announce the addition of the Paramount Golf Foreste Delhi - NCR Open to the PGTI calendar. The launch of this new event is a tribute to the golfing legacy of the Delhi - NCR region which has produced many golfers of international repute over the years. We thank Paramount Golf Foreste for partnering with us in this new initiative."
Source: PGTI Release