10th edition of Indian Open Golf begins on Thursday

The 10^th edition of the Indian Open gets underway tomorrow at Gary Player Layout, DLF Golf Country Club, in Gurugram. The DLF Golf Country Club opened in 1999 and was the first golf course in India to feature a professional golf academy and night golf. The par was designed by Gary Player and is a par 72, 7,379 yards long.

The pack contesting for the coveted title will see a record number of 25 Indian professionals and amateurs taking the course. It is the biggest professional women’s golf event held in the country and it is set to be played over 72 holes across four days which will be telecasted globally.

The big names that will feature include defending champion Becky Morgan of the UK and Camille Chevalier of France, who was the winner here in 2017. There has always been a strong presence of Indian women golfers in this event with the likes of Diksha Dagar who recently became only the second Indian after Aditi Ashok to win on the Ladies European Tour. She achieved this feat with her victory at the 2019 South African Women’s Open in March.

Aditi Ashok, who won the 2016 Hero Women’s Indian Open with a par score of  3-under-par 213, and in the process became the first Indian to win a Ladies European Tour title will not be contesting in the tournament. Vani Kapoor and Gaurika Bishnoi are also in the fray. The field will also include more Indian stars from the domestic tour and the leading amateurs.

As part of the European Tour, the prize money will be a whopping  500,000USD, the same as last year. It became part of the European Tour in 2009 and has been growing ever since.

Such tournaments have been major enablers in the growth of the sport and it continues to inspire more budding golfers to take up the game.