Leading the field is Parnita Garewal, the top ranked women's golfer in the country. The immensely talented 18-year-old has already won the Northern India and Western India titles, and was a member of the Indian team that took part in the Queen Sirikit event in Malaysia.

Also in the fray is second ranked Vandana Agarwal, last year's runner-up. The experienced Vandana recently finished seventh in the Malaysian Open, was a member of the Indian team in the Queen Sirikit event in Malaysia and has won most of the major trophies in the country several times over.

Another familiar figure will be the defending champion Urvashi Sethi Sodhi, ranked No 3 in the country. She too represented India in the Queen Sirikit event and finished fourth in the MalaysianOpen.

Last year's pulsating climax when she defeated Vandana in a play-off to clinch the title is still being talked about a year later.

Other major contenders include Anjali Chopra who won the Chandigarh Open this year and later finished sixth in the Malaysian Open, Arjuna Award winner Nonita Lal Qureshi who has won the All-India title five times and has featured in many international events and Lalitha Balasubramaniam of Chennai, who has excelled on her return to top flight golf after several years.

Lalitha, who has won the Sri Lankan Open, finished 7th in the Malaysian Open and is currently playing very well.

Totally, there are 45 entries, roughly the same as last year and the field includes five from Chandigarh, seven from Delhi and six from Calcutta. The competition has acquired an international flavour with the participation of three locally based Koreans and Anouk Chanmugham of Sri Lanka.

Incidentally, Anouk, who is a fairly experienced golfer, is the daughter of former Sri Lankan cricketerNeil Chanmugham, who toured India with Michael Tissera's team in 1964-'65.

Utley expressed her happiness at the number of juniors taking part and made special mention of two 14-year-olds -- Irina Brar who performed well in Thailand recently and Pragya Misra who represented India in Thailand in May and is the current South India handicap trophy holder.