Event
The 6th event of the Professional Golf Tour of India 2017 season will be staged at Bhatiary Golf & Country Club, Chittagong, Bangladesh from 29th March to 1st April. The brand new event will mark the first time that there has been two tournaments in Bangladesh in one season.
The Rs 40 lakh event will have Rs 6 lakhs up for grabs for the top spot and Rs 4 lakhs for the runner up position. There will be a total of 126 players taking part in the event with 120 professionals and 6 amateurs making up the numbers. The event will be played across 4 days of 72 holes in a stroke-play format with the top 50 players and ties making the halfway cut.
The tournament is co-sanctioned by PGTI and Bangladesh Professional Golfers Association (BPGA) and approved by Bangladesh Golf Federation (BGF).
Half of the field, i.e 63 players, will be native to the country with top Bangladeshi players like 2013 Indian Open champion, Md Siddikur Rahman and former PGTI tournament winner, Md Zamal Hossain Mollah being the top names.
The Indian challenge will be led by last week’s winner at the Kolkata Classic, Shamim Khan, 2014 Order of Merit champion, Shankar Das and PGTI tournament winners: Udayan Mane, Honey Baisoya, Khalin Joshi and Harendra Gupta.
The International names in the field will be Sri Lankans: Mithun Perera, N Thangaraja, Vijith Bandara and Anura Rohana. Also, in the field will be South African, Damian Naicker.
Md Zamal Hossain and Md Siddikur Rahman are kings in their own backyards and will be amongst the top contenders this week.
Course
After the closure of Notunpara Golf Club in 1984, the need f0r a better Golf Course was felt by the then GOC 24 Infantry Division, Major General Abdul Mannaf, psc, who acted as the protagonist and succeeded in convincing the then President of the country, Lt Gen HM Ershad to develop a Golf Course of international Standard.
He took on-board a group of local golf enthusiasts who met several times before formally agreeing, to form the ‘Bhatiary Golf & Country Club’, at a meeting held at Chittagong Club on 15 March 1984. The proposed Club was decided to be built at a scenic area of small hills and valleys at Bhatiary between Chittagong Cantonment and Bangladesh Military Academy.
Under the able guidance of General Mannaf a keen Golfer and an expart Engineer, Mr. W.L.C. Petrie an avid Scottish golfer of the multinational James Finlay Plc, was entrusted with the responsibility of planning and building an 18-Holes Golf Course as the first architect of BGCC. It took a great deal to keep the natural setting of the valleys in clearing of the marshes and broken ground covered with heavy jungles at the onset in May 1984.
With the assistance of 12 Engineer Battalion & MES bulldozing, cutting and leveling of fairways, greens and tees progressed at a good speed in spite of inhospitable terrain and adverse weather. Concurrently a massive forestation program ensured the coverage of about 50 acres of fairway slopes, hills etc by the Forest Department.
Eventually, an 18 holes golf course having 72 pars and 6666 yards was available to the golfers by the end of 1986. Though the course kept undergoing continuous changes and/or improvements, but the first major change to its layout took place in the mid nineties, when the holes were rearranged to start and finish near the half way house/parking area.
However, the most stunning change of the golf course took place during the years 2007-2010, when the layout of the fairways/greens underwent a splendid transformation with the able direction of the then Sr Vice Presidents of BGCC and under supervision of Mr. James Wilcher, a professional Australian golf course designer.
Sponsors
Lt. Col. Md Ikramul Yasin (Retd), CEO, Bhatiary Golf & Country Club (BGCC), said, “On behalf of the President and all members of Bhatiary Golf and Country Club, I thank BPGA and PGTI for co-sanctioning the tournament. We also thank all the officials of BGCC, BPGA, PGTI and RIZ Events for their untiring efforts to make this event happen. We congratulate all participants of this tournament and wish all success for this event.” Mr. Uttam Singh Mundy, CEO, PGTI, said, “The inaugural Chittagong Open marks a new chapter in Indo-Bangladesh golfing ties. The tournament is a result of the joint vision of the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) and the Bangladesh Professional Golfers Association (BPGA) to take professional golf to the next level in the South Asian region.
“PGTI members are excited about playing at the magnificent Bhatiary Golf & Country Club for the first time as the tour makes its debut in the historic city of Chittagong. We are confident that PGTI and BPGA will continue to work together to further strengthen the golfing partnership between India and Bangladesh.”
