BENGALURU: For the first time in the country's golf history, India's top professionals and amateurs will pit their skills against each other when the trials to pick the Asian Games squad gets under way at the KGA here on April 25.
With the Olympic Council of Asia throwing the doors open for the professionals to compete at the Asian Games - where only the amateurs took part since it made it to the Asiad fold in 1982 - the Indian Golf Union, the governing body of the sport, had no choice but to make changes to the selection process to pick the strongest team for the quadrennial event in Hangzhou, China, from September 10-25.
"The IGU asked the PGTI (men's tour) and the WGAI (women's tour) to send its top 10 golfers for trials, along with the top 10 amateurs of the country in each category," said Ishwar Achanta, a selection committee member of the IGU.
The selection committee has given discretionary spots to India's leading players - Anirban Lahiri, who finished second at the Players Championship last month, and Shubhankar Sharma in the men's section, and Aditi Ashok, who missed an Olympic medal in Tokyo last year by a whisker, and Tvesa Malik in the women's section.
The trials will witness 19 men (9 pros and 10 amateurs) battling for two spots while among women, 18 (8 pros and 10 amateurs) will vie for a lone berth at one of the challenging courses in the country.
"In all, 37 golfers will play five rounds at the KGA with the best four scores taken into consideration for selection," added Achanta, who is also the treasurer and the chairman of the International Relations Committee of the IGU.
"The selection committee considered the suggestion by Amit Luthra, an Asian Games gold medallist and a member of the selection committee, to nominate the two players in each section based on their world rankings," pointed out Achanta, also an international referee who has officiated in 13 Majors.
