Bengaluru: After recording a career-best tied third at the recently concluded Macau Open, S Chikkarangappa is all set to tee off at the inaugural Take Open Golf Championship, a new event added to the PGTI calendar, at the Karnataka Golf Association from Wednesday.
The four-day tournament will see a star field in action, with crowd favourite Chikka leading the field. The course will see a mixture of local flavour, along with a few seasoned pros fighting for the spoils at the third biggest tournament in the PGTI in terms of prize money.
Seasoned pros Jyoti Randhawa, Rahil Gangjee, Rashid Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Mithun Perera are amongst a clutch of other contenders, who will battle for honours.
Apart from the experienced faces, the tournament will also see a whole lot of local talent, namely, Khalin Joshi, M Dharma and C Muniyappa, looking to capitalise on the home advantage.
Mukesh, fresh from his win at the Chennai Open will look to continue his stellar form and add another title to his kitty. He will face stiff competition from Gurgaon golfer Shubhankar Sharma, the only one to win two PGTI titles this season. The 20-year-old has been in consistent form and is eyeing his third over the weekend.
Hot on his heels though will be local favourite Chikka, who has been in one of his best forms. The Bengaluru golfer has seen some fine finishes over the current season and will be looking to add his second PGTI title of the season after clinching the first one last month at the Eagleton.
Chikka’s morale has further been boosted after securing a career-best finish at Macau, where he was fighting for the trophy with good friend and fellow-competitor Anirban Lahiri, before settling for a tied-third finish.
The result also secured Chikka his Asian Tour card for the upcoming season.
“I’ve played some amazing golf over the last one month thanks to the hard work I’ve put in with my coach. It’s a big relief that I don’t have to go to the Asian Tour Q School now. The fact that I had to save my card was constantly on my mind, so there was a lot of pressure.
“But I just told myself to hang in there and be patient. Next year will be an important one for me now,” said a relieved Chikka. Gunning for his second title at one of his favourite courses, the 23-year-old Chikka said, “It’s a fantastic track here at the KGA which is like a second home course to me. The key at KGA is to hit it well off the tee and hole as many putts as possible.”
