New Delhi, February 23 – The 72 The League, a tournament promising a breakthrough for professional golf in India, begins at the Classic Golf & Country Club in Delhi NCR on Tuesday.
The opening round starts on Tuesday and introduces two key changes to the way golf is played in the country – it brings back the matchplay format, and it introduces the team element in professional golf.
Six city-based teams have been formed – Charminar Champions, Kolkata Classics, Mumbai Aces, Nava Raipur, Rajasthan Regals, and UP Prometheans – each team featuring 10 PGTI players.
Monday’s draw involved Arjun Atwal, the only PGA Tour winner from the country and a brand ambassador of the League, and the six team captains. This determined the playing order, which pitted the Ajeetesh Sandhu-led Rajasthan Regals against Kolkata Classics, captained by Viraj Madappa.
In the other two first-round matches, Charminar Champions will take on UP Prometheans, while the Mumbai Aces will be up against Nava Raipur.
Action begins at 12 noon, and the pairings will be determined after the captains submit their eight names for each format being played during the round. The remaining two players will be on the bench as reserves.
Unlike the established Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup, 72 The League will feature two singles, two fourballs, and a foursome match in each round.
The fourball format, where four balls are in play at any given time, will feature two players from each team. The player with the lowest score among the four wins the hole.
The foursome format, also called alternate ball, will feature two players from the team playing with one ball and alternating their shots. This format is generally considered one of the most difficult.
The teams played a practice round at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Classic Golf & Country Club, where most of them kept changing partners and formats to find the best possible combinations when the match starts.
Sandhu leads a strong Rajasthan team, which includes the experienced S Chikkarangappa, the long-hitting Yuvraj Singh, the aggressive Akshay Sharma, and Italian Michele Ortolani. Madappa’s Kolkata has plenty of experience in the form of Rashid Khan, Khalin Joshi, Angad Cheema, and the 61-year-old veteran Mukesh Kumar.
Asked about how his team plans to take on Kolkata, Sandhu said: “I think it should be a great match. They have a very experienced team with a lot of winners, so they can definitely handle the pressure of match play, and I think that’s going to be our key focus if we want to counter that.
“I think we’re a very balanced team throughout, we will go through the strategy of who our players are, who are feeling good about their game, and then choose the order of play for tomorrow.”
Madappa added: “Rajasthan is a really strong team and they have a lot of depth. But we also have the experience, and I think for us, it’s more about making sure that the pairs have good chemistry. I think that is going to be very important and also, how we complement each other's game.”
Talwar, who represented Mumbai Aces in the absence of Veer Ahlawat, who was travelling from Kenya to Delhi, said his team would try and feed off the energy of two of the youngest players in the field – 16-year-old Kartik Singh and the 17-year-old Pritish Singh Karayat.
“We have a very experienced and a very strong team. But we also have the two youngest players in the League. So, we’re excited about the firepower and the energy that they can bring. We tried a bunch of different pairings, a bunch of different strategies out there today. I liked what I saw, and I believe the team was on the same page as well,” said Talwar.
Malik said his Nava Raipur team, which has the current PGTI Order of Merit No1 and No2 – Honey Baisoya and American Jhared Hack – will focus their strategy on the foursomes format.
“For us, the most interesting aspect is going to be the foursomes. Most of our team, and I'm sure every other players, they are used to playing the fourball format a lot. I think foursome is something which nobody’s ever played, even in practice.
“We feel that the alternate shot, which carry three points, are going to be really important. So we are going to look at making sure that our pairing gets us those points.”
