Dozen Indians in a field full of world stars in Thai golf

Bangkok: Seasoned Jeev Milkha Singh and the young Indian duo of Anirban Lahiri and Gaganjeet Bhullar will spearhead India's challenge at the Thailand Golf Championships, which begins here this week.

While Bhullar and Lahiri will attempt to add one more title to one each they have already won this season, Jeev, India's most successful golfer, is looking to end the year with a morale-boosting show during a season that has seen him dip as low as 281 in world rankings.

The field in Bangkok this week includes the most successful player of 2013, Swede Henrik Stenson, who emerged as the topper in FedEx Cup and Race to Dubai in the world's two strongest Tours on either side of the Atlantic.

In a field with two of the world's top four ranked players, there are also three Major champions.

Led by Masters winners Bubba Watson and Charl Schwartzel, also the defending champion, the field also has US Open winner, Justin Rose. Then there is Sergio Garcia and the Americans Rickie Fowler and Hunter Mahan and the Japanese sensation Ryo Ishikawa.

On another note, India's golfing depth will once again be on display as 12 Indians -- Jeev, Bhullar, Lahiri, Digvijay Singh, SSP Chowrasia, Himmat Rai, Jyoti Randhawa, Sujjan Singh, C Muniyappa, Ajeetesh Sandhu, Abhijit Chadha and Abhinav Lohan -- will fight it out at Amata Spring from Thursday.

Jeev, after a decent start at the beginning of 2013 when he finished 17th at Volvo Champions on European Tour and 10th at Dubai Desert Classic besides three other top-25 finishes, has been hit hard by injury and woeful form in the second half of the season.

Since the BMW PGA Championships in early May, Jeev has missed 14 cuts and withdrawn once and made the cut only three times, of which two occasions were in Japan.

In contrast, Bhullar and Lahiri have performed exceedingly well and are placed inside the top-5 of the Asian Tour Order of Merit, from where four will qualify for the Asian Team for the inaugural Eurasia Cup in Malaysia next year.

Though the event is the last for Asian Tour in 2013, the season will officially end in January 2014, with one event each in Thailand and Malaysia.

Lahiri, who is now the top-ranked Indian in the world at 132, has had a stellar season, which saw him retain the SAIL-SBI Open title. He has had three second places since then besides two other top-10s and three finishes inside 17th place.

Bhullar has had his ups and down this season with the win in Indonesia last month and the second place at Avantha Masters in March being the peaks. He has missed quite a few cuts, but has gained immeasurably by playing alongside the world's best at events like the CIMB Classic, WGC-HSBC Champions and the World Cup of golf.

The third Indian, who has had the spotlight on him at time has been Shiv Kapur, but this week he is playing in South Africa to try and gain some early ground in the 2014 European Tour season, which began with some of the events in Asia and Africa at the end of 2013.

Kapur, second at the end of the third round at Hong Kong last week, this season won two Challenge Tour events, which helped him find his way back to the European Tour for 2014 season.

As for the Asian starcast, the field this week includes five Order of Merit champions, eight of the current top-10 players on the rankings and 48 Tour champions.

Home star Thongchai, the only man to win three merit crowns and Kiradech Aphinbarnrat, the current leader on Asian Tour Order of Merit, will be amongst the star attractions from the Asian side at Amata Spring.