New Delhi, Mar 14 (PTI) Home stars Shiv Kapur and Gaganjeet Bhullar will spearhead Indian challenge in the second edition of DGC Open golf tournament beginning here on Thursday.

The field of 138 players, from around 35 countries and including almost 50 Indians, has numerous players, who have won on the Asian Tour. Defending champion Thailand’s Nitithorn Thippong will be one of the star attractions in the tournament which has greater incentive this year as the prize purse has gone up from USD 500,000 to USD 750,000, a 50 per cent enhancement.

While the Thai duo of Nitithorn and Sadom Kaewkanjana, will head the foreign challenge, Kapur, a product of the Delhi Golf Club, Bhullar and Rashid Khan, will head the Indian challenge, that include some talented young stars.

Veer Ahlawat, Yuvraj Sandhu, Honey Baisoya, S Chikkarangappa, Aman Raj and other have produced some good results and they along with experienced stars like SSP Chawrasia and Jyoti Randhawa, who have won at this course, will look to put up a challenge this week.

Kapur said, “The DGC is home in more ways than one for me. My parents used to leave me here and I used to spend a lot of time playing here and having fun with friends.

“There’s a comfort factor in playing here over the years and while I’m now a ‘senior’ on the circuit, there is so much to learn from playing alongside the younger players as we have to constantly find ways to keep up with them.” Nitithorn, recalling his win last year said, “I’m very excited to be back at Delhi Golf Club. Last year the key was just to hit the ball in the fairway because the course is quite narrow. So for me, it’s like a two iron into the fairway, and then you get like a wedge or short iron to the green. So just hit it in the fairway.

“I can remember the last hole. I can remember almost every shot, but the highlight was the second shot on the first play-off hole, I hit a three wood onto the green. That was the best shot of my life,” he added.

One player who will hope to carry his momentum this week is Chikkarangappa, who was tied sixth in Thailand last week.

“I’ve had a decent start to the year including a top-10 at Black Mountain last week so my game is in a good space,” Chikka said.

“I’ve been spending time with my putter to try and keep the shoulders stable as most of our important putts are made from inside eight and 10 feet.” The DGC Open is presented by Mastercard.

Source: PTI News