Top golfers for Louis Philippe Cup

The Karnataka Golf Association in Bengaluru will from June 11 to 13 host the fourth Louis Philippe Cup with a strong field of India's elite professionals representing seven city teams.

The grid includes golfers from the Asian Tour and Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) led by Jyoti Randhawa, S.S.P. Chawrasia, Rahil Gangjee, Gaganjeet Bhullar and Rashid Khan, it was announced at a launch function here on Wednesday.

The three-day, 54-hole tournament with a prize purse of Rs 1.2 crore, is specially approved by the PGTI, and conceived and promoted by RN Golf Management (RNGM).

The seven city teams are defending champions Navratna Ahmedabad, TAKE Chennai, DLF The Crest Gurgaon, Jaypee Greens Greater Noida, new entrants Zion Hills Bengaluru and Dev-Ellora Pune led by Bangladesh star Siddikur along with Laqshya Mumbai with veterans Jyoti Randhawa and Mukesh Kumar.

This year, TAKE Chennai boasts the strongest team on paper, having lined up three of their brand ambassadors Chawrasia, S. Chikkarangappa and Khalin Joshi who is in strong form following a win at the PGTI Ahmedabad Masters and a 15th place finish in Indonesia in April.

Kapil Dev, owner of Dev Ellora Pune team, unveiled the teams along with Jacob John, COO, Louis Philippe, and said: "I wish I could buy two teams in this tournament, but as the current format allows, I could only go with one.

"I plan to spend some more time with my team of Siddikur, Om Prakash Chouhan and Sanjay Kumar in Bengaluru this time and hope to clinch our first title of Louis Philippe Cup."

As per the team selection criteria, two players from the top 14 ranked professionals on the PGTI 2014 Order of Merit will play on each team and will be joined by the sponsor's pick to constitute a three-member team.

As in the past three years, the total purse is Rs 1.2 Crore, the second highest of any domestic tournament, but shared by only 21 players instead of 50-60 in a normal PGTI or Asian Tour event. The players on the PGTI circuit who finish in the top-14 of the final Order of Merit get an automatic qualification.

The changed format from knockout to strokeplay mirrors the format to be used in Rio Olympics 2016 where individual and team medals are up for grabs and ensure that the interest of all teams remains till the end. The best two scores of the three players counting towards the team score each day.

PGTI director Padamjit Sandhu said: "We are happy to have renewed our partnership with Louis Philippe for the next three years."

The tournament returns to the KGA where it began in 2012 after rotating to Delhi NCR (Jaypee Greens Golf Resort) and Mumbai (Bombay Presidency Golf Club).