It is time again for the country's richest and only European Tour golf event — the Avantha Masters. However, the timing of the 1.8 million euro extravaganza is far from right.
Scheduled at a time when the upcoming Cricket World Cup is uppermost on the minds of the Indian sports lovers, the event has also suffered because of the indifference of several leading names from the European Tour.
The 18th-ranked Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Gonnet is the highest-placed player from the European Tour Order of Merit in the field. Five more players —England's David Howell (22nd), Australia's Scott Strange (24th), Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen (27th), Spain's Alvaro Velasco (28th) and Northern Ireland's Gareth Maybin (29th) — are the others from the top-30 list.
Poor timing
There are two main reasons why the creamy layer of the European Tour declines to travel to this part of the world.
Firstly, the event here falls in the intervening week between the 1,808,148 euro Omega Dubai Desert Classic (Feb. 10-13) and the $8,500,000WGC-Accenture Match Play (Feb. 23-27) in the U.S. After travelling eastwards for the Abu Dhabi Open, Volvo Golf Champions, Qatar Masters and the Dubai Desert Classic, the leading names prefer a week's break ahead of the cash-rich WGC Match Play.
Secondly, unlike the above mentioned events in Asia, the Avantha Masters does not offer appearance money to lure the reluctant players. Even a 20 per cent hike in prize fund from last year has not helped in bringing the performing players from the Tour.
Players like defending champion Australia's Andrews Dodt, Jeev Milkha Singh and the in-form Gaganjeet Bhullar have no doubt that the field still has enormous depth and “anyone can win this week.” There is no clear favourite but chances of a long-hitting Indian going all the way cannot be ruled out.
For the statistically-inclined, four players from the European Ryder Cup team are here and so are 13 players who have accounted for 19 major titles in India. The 2010 Indian Open winner Sweden's Rikard Karlberg and 2008 Johnnie Walker Classic champion New Zealand's Mark Brown are back.
Intermittent rains for the past two days have left the course soggy. Some more rain on Wednesday evening did not help matters. Forecast of more rain on Thursday is a further dampener. In the given conditions, the course will play longer and low scores will be at a premium on the opening day.
Bhullar, looking for his fourth successive title after the Gujarat Kensville Challenge at Ahmedabad, the Bangladesh Open in Dhaka and the PGTI Players' Championship at Kolkata, is the favourite among the Indians.
Familiar conditions
Notwithstanding his awesome form, Bhullar knows this course very well and the consistent low scores here reflect his confidence. On way to winning the 2009 DLF Masters here, Bhullar carded 15-under 273. Last year, he came second best to an irrepressible Ashok Kumar after shooting two sub-par rounds in the competition reduced to 54 holes.
Though Jeev Milkha Singh is playing for the fifth successive week after returning from a back injury, he does not look in good shape for a strong finish.
Jyoti Randhawa and Shiv Kapur, the two regulars on the European Tour, also do not promise much. But, given their experience, the duo can be expected to have a good week in familiar conditions. Ashok Kumar can be expected to provide some thrills, provided he exercises some restrain in his shot-making.
