Louis Philippe Cup: Hot golfing action set to thrill Bangalore

Bangalore: All eyes will be on SSP Chawrasia when the fifth edition of the city-based Louis Philippe Cup Pro Golf League tees off at the Karnataka Golf Association course here on Wednesday. Chawrasia, who arrived here in the wee hours of Tuesday after playing a tournament in Wentworth (UK), will be leading Take Chennai team, which also includes Bengaluru-based players Khalin Joshi and S Chikkarangappa. "The team composition is good this year as we have kept the same team from last year. All our players are playing well and we are confident going into the tournament," said Chawrasia, who has qualified for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Take Chennai will also have the services of producer and director Mani Ratnam. Each team will have, apart from three pros, two amateurs whose scores will count for the inter-city event. This will be only for Wednesday's action. Eight teams will vie for the impressive trophy apart from the Rs 1.2 crore in prize money. Navratna Ahmedabad may be three-time winners and defending champions but the other teams will not be going down without a fight. The other teams are Dev Chandigarh, debutants NSports Hyderabad, Laqshya Mumbai, Take Chennai, Zion Hills Bengaluru, DLF Crest Gurgaon and Jaypee Greens Greater Noida. M Dharma, who along with Rahil Gangjee and Abhijit Chadha comprises the Bengaluru team, exuded confidence ahead of the event. "We have a definitive advantage and hope to be the winners. I have confidence in the team as Rahil is amongst the top 60 on the Asian Tour and Abhijit is amongst the top 3 on the PGTI rankings. We also have a home advantage," he said. Ashok Kumar (DLF – The Crest Gurgaon) and his team are also ready to produce their best. "We are pretty confident that we will do well since we are performing to the best of our abilities. My teammates have had a stupendous season so far. With the format being stroke play, we have a fairly good chance." Many amateurs golfers rubbed shoulders with the pros as well as celebrities, including actor R Madhavan, Mani Ratnam, former India cricketers Ajit Agarkar, Syed Kirmani and Sujit Somasundar and former India hockey goalkeeper Ashish Ballal. The team of Chikkarangappa S, Paritosh Ganapathy, Chetan Meda and Kiran Gowda, with gross and team net scores of 56 and 52 respectively, won the Etihad Pro-Am.