Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa set to renew rivalry

MUMBAI: Two stalwarts of Indian golf - Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti Randhawa - will renew their rivalry at the BPGC when they tee off on Wednesday for their teams Shubhkamna Delhi and Dev Ellora Laqshya Mumbai respectively in the Louis Philippe Cup.
Having played on the Asian as well as the European Tour together, they have never played against each other in a team format before the Rs 1.2 crore event got scheduled on the PGTI calendar, two seasons back.
And interestingly, it was Randhawa who got the better of the two in the inaugural edition in 2012, played at the Karnataka Golf Association course in Bangalore. Jyoti had defeated Jeev 3 & 2 in matchplay, but the three-time Indian Open champion was playing for the DLF Gurgaon team then and Jeev was playing for the Noida outfit.
"Yeah I had beaten him then. We have shared a healthy rivalry since a long time. It was interesting and I am looking forward to an exciting week. I haven't practised much as I had taken a month-long break after playing for seven continuous weeks. BPGC is one of my favourite courses as I had good amount of success here," Randhawa told TOI on Tuesday after playing the celebrity pro-am with cricket legend Kapil Dev.
Randhawa had won his first professional title at BPGC in 1996, a year later than Jeev did on the same course.
"We have been playing for such a long time. Me, Daniel (Chopra), Arjun (Atwal) and Jyoti pushed each other for the better and that made us crave for more. It did a lot of good to not only us, but the game as well, as we slowly got the confidence to take on the world," said Jeev.
Besides them, Asian Tour No. 5 Gaganjeet Bhullar (Jaypee Greens Greater Noida), World No. 108 Anirban Lahiri (Purvankara Bangalore), two-time European Tour winner SSP Chowrasia (Take Chennai), reigning Indian Open champion Siddikur Rahman (DLF Gurgaon) of Bangladesh and seasoned pros Rahil Gangjee (AVT Kolkata), Mukesh Kumar (Take Chennai) and Shamim Khan (Shubhkamna Delhi) will be seen in action.
With the renovated 6148-yard course playing true with the usage of the imported Paspalum grass, low scores are in store for sure. "It will be a low-scoring event with the format of two best scores taken for the team total and the greens playing really well. As it is a tight course, iron-play will be more important.
One can only use the drivers on 4-5 holes," said 2011 Singapore Classic winner Himmat Rai, who led Silverglades Delhi to victory last season but will turn out for the newly-included team Krrish Colombo this time.
The tournament might see some promising youngsters like Rashid Khan and S Chikkarangappa topple their more famous competitors. Both Rashid and Chikka have had fair amount of success at the BPGC and that might prove crucial for their respective teams - Bangalore and Delhi.
While Chikka has the amateur course record of eight-under par in his name, Rashid lost twice in a playoff here in the 2012 and 2013 CG Opens. In all a total of nine teams with three players each will compete for the winner's cheque of Rs 36 lakh.