The TATA Steel Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) begins the 2022 season with the second edition of the Gujarat Open Golf Championship presented by Gujarat Tourism. The tournament carrying a prize purse of Rs. 40 lakh is scheduled to be played at the magnificent Kalhaar Blues & Greens Golf Club in Ahmedabad from February 22 – 25, 2022.
Gujarat Tourism is the Presenting Partner for the event while the Sports Authority of Gujarat and Incredible India are the Associate Partners for the event.
The tournament is a testament to Gujarat’s stature as a major golfing centre as it is home to some of the finest golf courses in the country including the Kalhaar Blues & Greens, Kensville Golf & Country Club, Gulmohar Greens Golf & Country Club, The Gaekwad Baroda Golf Club, Aalloa Hills Resort, The Belvedere Golf & Country Club and Glade One Golf Club. There is immense potential for golf tourism in Gujarat thanks to the plethora of golf courses on offer for the business and leisure traveler. Golf tourism has in recent years emerged as a special segment of tourism worldwide and the Gujarat Open Golf Championship 2022 presented by Gujarat Tourism provides the state of Gujarat a great opportunity to tap into this potential.
The tournament comprises a field of 126 players including 123 professionals and three amateurs. The event is set to feature some of the top Indian professionals such as Olympian and 2021 PGTI Order of Merit champion Udayan Mane, Karandeep Kochhar, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu, Manu Gandas, Om Prakash Chouhan, Kshitij Naveed Kaul and Abhijit Singh Chadha, to name a few.
The foreign challenge will be led by Sri Lanka’s Mithun Perera, Australia’s Kunal Bhasin, Nepal’s Sukra Bahadur Rai and the Bangladeshi quintet of Md Akbar Hossain, Md Muaj, Md Somrat Sikdar, Md Sayum and Md Shakhawat Hossain Sohel.
The local challenge will be led by Gujarat-based professionals Varun Parikh, Anshul Patel, Jay Pandya, Shravan Desai and Arshpreet Thind. The Gujarat-based amateurs in the field are Rajiv Vasa, Dhruv Suri and Rachit Mankoti.
Shri Hareet Shukla, IAS, Secretary, Gujarat Tourism, “As the state of Gujarat is home to some of the best golfing venues in the country, there is huge potential for the state to become one of the leaders in golf tourism in India. The staging of the Gujarat Open Golf Championship presented by Gujarat Tourism in partnership with PGTI is an initiative aimed towards boosting golf tourism in Gujarat. We look forward to continuing our mutually beneficial partnership with PGTI through the staging of yet another successful event.”
Mr. Uttam Singh Mundy, CEO, PGTI, said, “We’re excited about beginning the season with the Gujarat Open Golf Championship 2022 presented by Gujarat Tourism at the magnificent Kalhaar Blues & Greens. We thank Gujarat Tourism for their continued support to Indian professional golf and the PGTI. The tournament will play an important role in promoting Gujarat as a golfing destination. We thank Kalhaar Blues & Greens for the support to professional golf and especially their partnership with PGTI for the Gujarat Open. We wish the players all the best, welcome the rookies on the tour and look forward to a highly competitive season.”
Mr. Devang Shah, MD, Navratna Group, said, “We at Kalhaar Blues & Greens are excited to welcome PGTI by hosting the Gujarat Open Golf Championship 2022 presented by Gujarat Tourism, the first event of the calendar year 2022. Wishing all the players a successful year ahead. This event will encourage many young golfers as they will witness their favourite players live in action. It also gives us a lot of pleasure to showcase golf tourism potential of Gujarat to all the golfers of the country and people travelling to this part of the world.”
Olympian Udayan Mane, the reigning PGTI Order of Merit champion and one of the tournament favourites, said, “I’m excited about playing the Gujarat Open 2022 as it’s always a treat to play in Kalhaar, one of the top championship venues in India. I play at Kalhaar quite regularly and it is almost like a home course for me. I’ve also won at this venue in the past and that adds to my confidence this week. It’s a course where the approach shots demand a lot of precision. I would like to carry forward the momentum from last year’s Order of Merit win. I thank the sponsors for their support to the event.”
