SSP eyes home hat-trick

There promises to be plenty of sub-plots but the most intriguing will be to see if SSP Chawrasia can make it a hat-trick of wins on home soil when the TAKE Solutions Masters tees off at the Karnataka Golf Association on Thursday.

It will, by no means, be an easy feat for the Kolkata golfer as he will be up against a highly competitive field that will feature the likes of local lad S Chikkarangappa, Nicholas Fung, who broke his Asian Tour duck with a win at the Queen’s Cup in Koh Samui, and Shiv Kapur.
Interestingly, Kapur overcame an abscess in the liver to lift the Yeangder Heritage title at Chinese Taipei in April.

Despite being an overwhelming favourite, Chawrasia has endured a fluctuating run on the European Tour having missed the cut in his last two tournaments -- Dubai Duty Free Irish Open and Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.

But Chawrasia has always bounced back, most notedly when he endured three missed cuts in four tournaments before defending the Indian Open earlier this year.

“Playing in India gives me a lot of confidence and it is no different this time around. I don’t really obsess about bad results from the past. The focus is on doing well in the present tournament,” Chawrasia said at a pre-tournament press conference.

The added incentive for Chawrasia will be the fact that he can top the Asian Order of Merit with a win here and he acknowledged the importance of doing so.

“Of course it is key that I win here and top the Order of Merit. It is definitely one of the factors that is motivating me to give it my all,” said the six-time Asian Tour winner.

Home conditions and course familiarity will make Chikkarangappa, a double Asian Development Tour champion, a force to be reckoned with and the Bengalurean revealed that his game suited the course.

“The thing I like about KGA is that you need to move the ball a lot, the course is designed in that manner. That will be advantageous for me as my game is well suited in that regard.”
Apart from Fung, the foreign representation at the tournament that could pose a serious threat are Sri Lankans Mithun Perera and Anura Rohana, both of whom have triumphed at Bengaluru in the past.

Fung recollected how he was under the weather a little prior to Queen’s but went on to claim the title, crediting his feat to not feeling any pressure through the tournament.

“I was sick for about ten days before the event (Queen’s) and probably wouldn’t have played but it was my mindset that kept me going. I had a couple of runner-up performances in the lead up so I knew I was closer. I just enjoyed my game and played with absolutely no pressure and it eventually paid off,” said the 27-year-old Malaysian.

KGA officials have spruced the course up a bit on recommendations of the course directors and reduced the yardage from 7220 to 7060 with the roughs being raised, to make it challenging.

Apart from the usual suspects, the field will include a host of Indian youngsters -- Khalin Joshi, Shubhankar Sharma and Rashid Khan -- as well as veterans like Gaganjeet Singh Bhullar, Jeev Milkha Singh, Mukesh Kumar and Jyothi Randhawa.