Chikka, Randhawa, Gangjee in fray for inaugural event

After recording a career-best tied third at the Macau Open last week, S. Chikkarangappa is all set to tee off at the inaugural Take Open Golf Championship, a new event added to the PGTI calendar, at the Karnataka Golf Association from Wednesday.

The tournament has attracted a star-studded field, with crowd favourite Chikka leading the list. The course will see a mixture of local flavour, along with a few seasoned pros fighting for the spoils at the third biggest tournament in the PGTI in terms of prize money.

Seasoned pros Jyoti Randhawa, Rahil Gangjee, Rashid Khan, Mukesh Kumar and Mithun Perera are amongst a clutch of others who will battle for honours.

Apart from the experienced faces, the tournament will also see a whole lot of local talent in the form of Khalin Joshi, M. Dharma and C. Muniyappa, looking to capitalise on home advantage.

Mukesh, fresh from his win at the Chennai Open will look to continue his stellar form and add another title to his kitty. He will face stiff competition from Gurgaon golfer Shubha-nkar Sharma, the only one to win two PGTI titles this season. The 20-year-old has been in consistent form and is eyeing his third win this weekend.

Hot on his heels though will be local favourite Chikka, who has been in top form. The Bengaluru golfer has had some fine finishes of late and will be looking to add his second PGTI title of the season after clinching the first one last month at the Eagleton course near here.

Chikka’s morale has further been boosted after securing a career-best finish at Macau, where he was fighting for the trophy with Anirban Lahiri, before settling for a tied-third finish. The result also secured Chikka his Asian Tour card for the upcoming season.