S. Chikkarangappa has fond memories of the Eagleton golf course in Bengaluru. He clinched his first PGTI event — the Take Solutions India Masters — at the venue last December.
S. Chikkarangappa has fond memories of the Eagleton golf course in Bengaluru. He clinched his first PGTI event — the Take Solutions India Masters — at the venue last December. This week, he is the firm favourite to win the Rs 30 lakh PGTI Players Championship that got under way in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
“It’s always special to come back and play on my home turf at Eagleton. I have a lot of good memories here. I’ve been in good form of late. I was pleased to achieve my target of winning the Rolex Ranking last year. The Asian Tour result last week provided me with the ideal start to the season,” said Chikka, who along with Shubhankar Sharma earned Asian Tour cards for the season in Hua Hin, Thailand, last month.
“We’ve never really played at Eagleton at this time of the year. The wind will play an even greater role in the current weather conditions.
“The greens are soft and nice. If you putt well you can go really deep. I think the healthy competition between Shubhankar and me at the moment is good for both of us. We are both pushing each other to do better and taking our games to a higher level,” he added.
The 22-year-old is also fresh from his best-ever Asian Tour finish of tied fourth at the Bashundhara Bangladesh Open last week. Sharma, a rookie on the Asian Tour, will be another name to reckon with this week.
He, like Chikka, too posted his career-best result, a third place finish, on the Asian Tour last week.
Said the Gurgaon-based golfer, “I’m quite satisfied with my start to the season. I achieved an important goal by earning the Asian Tour card. Chikka will once again be the guy to beat here at Eagleton. He’s always in contention on his home ground.”
Besides the two, the tournament also has the likes of Udayan Mane (2015 PGTI emerging player) and Khalin Joshi in the field.
All four youngsters will be playing their first PGTI event of the season.
Other top names in the field are current Rolex Ranking leader Feroz Ali Mollah, Mukesh Kumar, Shankar Das, Shamim Khan and Vikrant Chopra.
