BANGALORE, Aug 25: Leading golfers will be vying for top honours in the Rs 6 lakhs Classic Southern Open to be teed off at the Karnataka Golf Association from August 27.

Top professionals like Vijay Kumar, Jyothi Randhawa, Shiva Prakash and Feroz Ali will be seen in action along with last year's top performers former Masters champion Ali Sher, Rohtas Singh and Basad Ali, an ITC spokesman said today.However, Gaurav Ghei, the `first million rupee winner' with total earnings of Rs 10.93 lakhs from nine events, and Jeev Milkha Singh would not be taking part in the event. Gaurav is not playing because of personal reasons, while Jeev had been invited for a tournament in Thailand.

He said the regional Classic Golf events would be held in Chandigarh (November), Pune (December) and Calcutta (February) and all of them would carry a purse of Rs six lakhs each. These would culminate in the Classic Master here in February and would carry a prize money of Rs 10 lakhs.

The Classic Indian Open with a prize money of $3,00,000 would be played in Delhi next year.He said 108 golfers, including eight amateurs, would tee off on August 27.

The top 40 orders of merit players were exempt and they would be joined by five club and sponsor nominations. Forty five players from qualifying school list from the event played in Chennai last week would make the main draw.

The golfers are expected to have a tough time with the greens being difficult and strong wind conditions.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.