The start is delayed than usual, but the professional women’s tour is finally ready to roll. The fourth edition of the tour will see its first tournament at the Classic Golf Resort in Manesar from November 17 to 20.

Smriti Mehra will lead the challenge at the opening leg. Mehra has had dominating performances at home, ruling the order of merit charts in the first two seasons.

However, there are also a few new faces to provide a fresher, and hopefully a bigger, challenge. Bangalore’s Sharmila Nicollet, who had a stellar national amateur career turned professional just two months ago, and started off the second part of her career with a bang — a top-ten finish at a Thai LPGA event in September. She will look to make her home debut as memorable.

The younger lot also includes Nalini Singh, the top earner for the tour in 2008-09, and Saaniya Sharma, who could only play a couple of events last season because of a surgery, but still impressed.

The Women’s Golf Association of India (WGAI) has scheduled the six-leg tour over the next three months. Each leg will have a prize purse of Rs 1.68 lakh, with the total adding up to Rs 10 lakh. According to WGAI secretary Champika Sayal, the association will also announce the fourth edition of the Women’s Indian Open soon.

CALENDAR
1. November 17-20 Classic Golf Resort 2. November 24-27 Rambagh Golf Club, Jaipur 3. December 7-10 Chandigarh Golf Club 4. December 11-14 Panchkula Golf Club 5. January 12-15 Qutab Golf Course 6. January 18-22 DLF Golf & Country Club