Top golfers for Eagleburg Masters

India's leading players, led by reigning Rolex Rankings champion Rashid Khan, will be seen in action in the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) Eagleburg Masters tournament, commencing at the Eagleton Golf Resort here Tuesday.

The tournament is the fourth of seven Super Series events scheduled in 2014 and carries an attractive prize purse of Rs.40 lakh.

The tournament will also feature, among others, current Rolex Rankings leader Chikkarangappa, Shamim Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Om Prakash Chouhan and Shubhankar Sharma.

The foreign challenge will be led by Sri Lankans K. Prabagaran, N. Thangaraja and Bangladesh's Mohammed Zamal Hossain Mollah.

M. Dharma, C. Muniyappa, R. Murthy, Abhishek Jha, R. Srinivas and Gaurav Diwan are the other top Bangalore golfers in the fray besides Chikkarangappa who will be playing on his home course.

Seven events will be staged as part of the PGTI Super Series in 2014 with a total prize purse of Rs.4.3 crore. Points are allocated for each event of the Super Series. The player with the highest points at the end of the seven Super Series events stands to earn a bonus of Rs.30 lakh.

Rashid currently leads the Super Series points table with 1436.5 points. Chikkarangappa is in second place with 1296.4 points followed by Shubhankar Sharma (1272).

Chetan Meda, director, Eagleton - The Golf Resort, said: "Eagleton - The Golf Resort provides the ideal setting for India's best professionals to compete for the high stakes in prize money and Super Series points.

"We seek to encourage the growth of professional golf in Bangalore and other parts of Karnataka by staging events such as the PGTI Eagleburg Masters."

Announcing the event, Padamjit Sandhu, director, PGTI, said: "A thrilling week of golf lies in prospect at the PGTI Eagleburg Masters as the top names on the PGTI vie for the impressive prize purse of Rs. 40 lakh and crucial Super Series points.

"We thank Eagleton - The Golf Resort for partnering with us in staging this event and seek to build on our partnership with them with the objective of promoting professional golf in and around the city of Bangalore."

The venue for the event, Eagleton - The Golf Resort, is situated on the Bangalore-Mysore highway, and is home to a USPGA standard course. This picturesque course is spread over 170 acres and has undulating fairways and huge greens with an excellent drainage system.