Dubai: A competitive field of 84 golfers, including former champions Bipin Bhatia, Kiran Uttamchandani, Satyamurthy Srinivasan and Mohammad Khan, are set to compete in the 13th Gulf News Merchants Cup golf tournament at The Montgomerie on Thursday.
The popular tournament, which is played under a Pairs Stableford (3/4 Handicap) format, will tee off at 1pm following a shotgun start.
The men start from the Blue Sapphire tees and the ladies for the Red Ruby tees.
On the completion of play, each pair Betterball Stableford score will be combined to give a team total.
Bhatia and Uttamchandani won the event in 2007 as a team while Srinivasan and Khan claimed the honours in 2006.
Organised by Gulf News every year in November, the event attracts ardent golfers from within the business fraternity and beyond.
Stiff competition
Commenting on the event, Duleep George, Executive Director, Marketing and Sales, Al Nisr Group, said: "We are all looking forward to a great golfing day and it will be a pleasure to welcome friends, both old and new, at the tournament today, which looks all set to be very keenly contested."
Paul Dennis, Director of Golf at The Montgomerie added: "We are proud to have Gulf News back for what we hope will be another highly-successful tournament. We appreciate all their support and look forward to our continuing relationship."
Registration opens at 11am and players will tee off at 1pm
Apart from the prizes to the top scorers, there will also be prizes awarded in various categories including the Nearest the Pin (holes 8 & 17) for all players and the Longest Drive (holes 10 & 18) for all players. Other prizes include one for the Straightest Drive on Hole 1 and two special tongue-in-cheek prizes for ‘Most Golf' and ‘Most balls lost on Hole 18'.
Line-up
Players line-up for this year's event: A.E. Ravi; Abizer Mohamad; Adel Zarouni; Aman Rupani; Amit Radia; Anand Lakhiani; Andrew Robinson; Archie Sharma; Ashok Agarwal; Ashok Varma; Ashok Bakshi; Ashok Uttamchandani; Atul Dhawan; Azam Alizar; Babu Subramanian; Bayar Khan; Ben Jacob George; Bharat Godkhindi; Bipin Bhatia; Brian King; Burhan Mohammad; Chini Srinivasan; Colin Farmer; Dalip Tripathi; Darvin Davidian; David Robinson; Deepa Uttamchandani; Dileep Kumar; Fred Watts; Gurbax Singh; Gurmeet Singh; Hamad Al Medfa; Hassan Yazdi; Inderpal Singh; Ishwar Jodha; Ishwar B. Rupani; Esmail Mohammad; J.P. Nambiar; Jacqui Barry; Jairaj Roddam; James Dagar; James Verwey; Jane Gray; Joan Legner and Juho Halinen. Juho Halinen; K P Ravi; Khalid Al Halyan; Kiran Uttamchandani; Kush Sama; M. P. Sharma; Madhu Pillai; Mahesh Menda; Mala Subberwal; Marwan Rizk; Mohammad Khan; Mohammed Moledina; Mustafa Nasser; Naresh Handa; Neil Sharma; Nitin Puri; P.J. Marriot; Paul Joseph; Peter Loakman; Prem Amarnani; Rabih Sfeila; Rajeev Khanna; Ramesh Prabhakar; Ranjan Roy; Richard Lewis; Richard Ingram; Rita Walker; Samar Roy; Sanjeev Suri; Satnam Kaur; Satyamurthy Srinivasan; Shahriar Khodjasteh; Shravan Khanna; Shyam Bhatia; Stathis Stathis; Suneel Mehra; Suneesh Menon; Suresh C. Subberwal; Veneet Mohan; Vinod Nayar; Vishal Tikku.
