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All eyes on Vijay Kumar

The Wills Sport Golf Tour will extend its stop in Madras when the second edition of the Color Plus Open begins at the Madras Gymkhana Club course from today.

The four-day main event will be played between September 7 and 10, while the pro-am is scheduled after a day's gap on September 12. This has been done keeping in mind that the city goes for the polls on September 11.

In just the second year of its inception, the Color Plus Open has become the biggest tournament down south in terms of the prize-money. This year, the total purse will be Rs 7.5 lakh, with the winner taking home a cheque of Rs 1,21,500. The runner-up will be richer by Rs 84,000, while the 50th placed pro stands to gain Rs 3,450. The sponsors, Color Plus, have been magnanimous in increasing the prize-money by 50 per cent over last year's purse of Rs 5 lakh.

The star attraction of the tournament will be Vijay Kumar, the twice Mahindra Player of the Year, who won the season-opening Hindu Open at the Cosmopolitan Club last week. Also in fray are defending champion Sanjay Kumar, twice Indian Open champion Ali Sher, 1998 Wills Indian Open champion Feroz Ali, twice Honda-Siel PGA champion Uttam Singh Mundy, and other winners on the Wills Sport Golf Tour like Vivek Bhandari, Amritinder Singh, Shiv Prakash Basad Ali, Mukesh Kumar and Rafiq Ali.

The windy conditions at the almost Links-like course of Madras Gymkhana is known for testing the mettle of the players. The course has been increased by 365 yards since last year and the rough is almost treacherous. Tee boxes on as many as seven holes have been re-laid, making it longer. Thus, long and accurate hitters will have an advantage, and Vijay Kumar has both the qualities.

Defending champion Sanjay Kumar had a modest start to the season when he finished 18th in the Cosmo-Hindu Open. "I would definitely love to win here again. I just hope that my game falls in place during the event," he said on the eve of the tournament.

Sponsors Color Plus produce what is definitely one of the most sought-after casualwear brands in the country. The company was formed in 1994 as the domestic brand of Ambattur Clothing Ltd. This attracted a clientele with interest in golf, thus leading Color Plus into golf clothing and accessories market. Today, Color Plus boasts of an impressive range of fibre-dyed T-shirts, golf-ball washed chinos and shorts and a range of accessories including golf hats, washed twill caps, gloves, socks, and umbrellas are in the pipeline.Indeed, Indian golf is richer by the presence of Color Plus.