Bengaluru, 02-08-2017
Chawrasia and Chikka approach TAKE Solutions Masters with great hopes
SSP Chawrasia will be aiming for another home victory at the inaugural US$300,000 TAKE Solutions Masters which should give him a huge boost in the Asian Tour Order of Merit race. Already lying second in the race for the Order of Merit, Chawrasia has been hugely successful at home, having won five of his six titles in India.
Chawrasia needs a tied second place finish with one player to take over the Merit lead from David Lipsky, who is not in the elite field this week. Only US$25,799 separates them.
Chawrasia will be joined by a host of Indian stalwarts including two-time Asian Tour number one Jeev Milkha Singh, Shiv Kapur, who won his second Asian Tour title earlier this year, and home boy Chikkarangappa S., a two-time winner of the event when it was staged on the Asian Development Tour (ADT) in 2014 and 2015.
Chawrasia, 39, said, “This is my favourite course. The conditions are great whenever I come here and play. The weather is fantastic as well. It is a good opportunity for all the players to play in a new Asian Tour event. We are thankful to TAKE Solutions for doing so much for golf in India.
“Of course you play to win and I always try my best and hopefully I can do well. But if anybody else plays better than me, they deserve to take the trophy.
“Yes, when I won the Hero Indian Open this year, I missed three cuts on the European Tour and now I’ve missed two cuts before this week. But in my mind, I’m only thinking about winning this trophy. I don’t want to think about the negative things.”
Indians have won all seven Asian Tour event held in Asia since 2014 and Chawrasia has taken three of them.
Chikka will be hoping to land his first Asian Tour title in his home state of Bengaluru following victories in the event on the ADT albeit on a different golf course. He has yet to hit top form this year and hopes to turn the corner this week.
Chikka said, “The field is really good this week. I’m confident even though I haven’t had a good 2017. I’ve been rusty but when there’s an event on home soil, I’ve always done well. As the home boy, a lot of players ask for my advice on how to play the course. Normally I tell them a lot of secrets so they will have a lot of thoughts in their mind when playing (laughs).”
Picture Caption: SSP Chawrasia, Chikkarangappa S and Malaysian Nicholas Fung pose with the trophy of the TAKE Solutions Masters
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