Kolkata, Feb 12 : A strong field that boasts of top Indian professionals like Manu Gandas, Khalin Joshi, defending champion Sachin Baisoya, Aman Raj, Karan Pratap Singh, Rahil Gangjee and Udayan Mane will compete in the PGTI Players Championship 2024 which will be played at the Tollygunge Club in Kolkata from Tuesday.

The tournament offering a prize purse of INR 1 crore heralds the start of the 2024 PGTI season. The Pro-Am event will be played on February 17.

The tournament will see the participation of 124 players including 121 professionals and three amateurs.

The strong field at the event boasts of leading Indian professionals including Manu Gandas, Khalin Joshi, defending champion Sachin Baisoya, Aman Raj, Karan Pratap Singh, Rahil Gangjee, Udayan Mane, Angad Cheema, Jairaj Singh Sandhu, Harshjeet Singh Sethie, Sunhit Bishnoi and Gaurav Pratap Singh, to name a few.

The prominent foreign names competing are Sri Lankans N. Thangaraja and K. Prabagaran, Bangladeshis Jamal Hossain and Badal Hossain, Andorra's Kevin Esteve Rigaill and Nepal's Sukra Bahadur Rai as well as rookies including PGTI Qualifying School winner Matias Dominguez of Chile, Nepal's Subash Tamang, Italy's Michele Ortolani, Czechia's Stepan Danek, South Korea's Si In Kim, American Dominic Piccirillo and Germany's Wenzel Krzenck.

The Kolkata-based professionals in the field are Shankar Das, Divyanshu Bajaj, Mohammad Sanju, Indrajit Bhalotia, Karan Verma and Arjun Puri. The three Kolkata-based amateurs participating are Uzair Firdausi, Rohan Shroff and Sandeep Yadav.

'The Tollygunge Club greens are primed for the brightest talents on Tour to showcase their skills. Golf enthusiasts across Kolkata shall be keenly following the pros and hoping it rubs off on their own game. We hope this edition will be a hugely successful one and we wish all the players the best for the tournament,' Shreyon Chatterjee, Golf Captain, Tollygunge Club, said.

Uttam Singh Mundy, CEO, PGTI, said, 'We're excited to commence the new season with the PGTI Players Championship presented by Tollygunge Club. We thank the Tollygunge Club for partnering with us in staging the event. The handsome prize purse on offer and the challenges posed by the Tollygunge Club course make for a thrilling contest at the season opener.

"We welcome the rookies on the tour including several foreign players all of whom have earned their PGTI cards after coming through the highly competitive Qualifying School last week. We look forward to yet another year of fierce competition,' he added.

/IANS