The tournament which begins tomorrow will be a unique one because it follows the format of the AT&T Invitational at Pebble Beach, which is part of the US PGA Tour. The pro-am event forms a part of the main tournament in which 80 amateurs will team-up with the 40 professionals who make the cut at the end of the second round and the final two rounds will see two amateurs teaming up with one professional.

Unlike the normal one-day pro-am, the professionals will not treat the round as match practice for the main event.

The star attraction of the tournament will be the Classic Indian Open winner Feroz Ali, who has given the Macau Open an Omega APGA Tour, a miss to play on his home course. The Calcuttan, who survived a crash landing in Shanghai where he made the cut at the VolvoChina Open, will start as favourite after participating in the Kirin Cup in Japan.

Among other Indian pros who are in the fray include Vijay Kumar, the leader in the Mahindra-PGAI Order of Merit with a total earnings of about Rs 13 lakhs; Shiv Prakash, winner of the SRF Open in Delhi last week and Ali Sher.

The focus will be on amateur-turned pros Indrajit Bhalotia and Rajeev Mohta who will make a strong bid for the Rs 83,000 top prize along with Basad Ali and Rafiq Ali.

Golf Rankings

MUMBAI: Gaurav Ghei fell out even as APGA tour players namely, Arjun Atwal, Arjun Singh and Vivek Bhandari made it to the top ten of the Mahindra Golf Rankings for "The Golfer Of The Year Award", according to reports reaching here. At the end of the Hero Cycles Open (April 2-5), leader Vijay Kumar of Kanpur was as good as the winner of the Rs 4.8 lakh Award having amassed 364.50 points, leaving most other players in no position to challenge.

Of the 1.7 crore PGA India tour 1997, Vijay's seasons earning run intoexcess of 12 lakhs.

Twice Indian Open winner, Ali Sher is at second spot. He displaced current Indian Open winner Feroz Ali to third place. The latest event on the tour, SRF Open was won by Shiv Prakash also of Kanpur who is currently placed fifth on the rankings behind Mhow's Mukesh Kumar.

The othre players in the top ten are Basad Ali (sixth), Indrajit Bhalotia (seventh), Arjun Atwal (eighth), Arjun Singh (ninth) and Vivek Bhandari (tenth).