Bangalore, Feb 10: Lucknow professional Vijay Kumar, who heads the Order of Merit as also the earnings in the IPGA tour, is on a roll after winning three of the 12 events so far and will be seeking to retain his position at the top by winning the Classic Masters Golf tournament, commencing at the KGA course, here on Wednesday, ahead of defending champion Shiv Prakash of Kanpur.Hot favourite Arjun Atwal of Calcutta, along with Indrajit Bhalotia, could not make it in time for the Pro-Am due to a flight delay, but sounded confident of repeating his last August's triumph at the Classic Southern Indian Open here. Arjun, who played alongside the famed Tiger Woods in the final round of the Johnnie Walker Classic in Phuket last month, expressed his liking to the KGA course saying: ``It suits my style of play.''
Echoing a similar feeling about the course was No.2 on the Order of Merit list Vivek Bhandari, who began the season winning the first tournament of the circuit, the Honda-Siel PGA Open. ``The conditionsin the course are perfect, which means we should see some good scores in the next four days,'' said Bhandari.
The course, with tricky gradients, should bring the best out of the golfers and the first Indian to qualify for the British Open, Gaurav Ghei, opined as much: ``Good putting will be the key to success here.''
Meanwhile, Calcutta pro, Basad Ali, served a warning with a superb three-under 69 on Tuesday, thus leading his side to the victory podium in the Pro-Am golf tournament, the prelude to the Masters.
Basad's team, comprising M G Nanjappa, Anand Srinivasan and Venkatesh Dutt, beat Vivek Bhandari's side (John D'Souza, Madhav Rao and Mrs Dhanalakshmi Rice), in the tie-breaker.
The tie-breaker in the Stableford format was implemented when both the sides were locked at 117. Basad's team, by virtue of a score of 57 on the back nine, emerged winners.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
