19 ladies and 19 men will compete this week at the Asian Games Golf Trials at RCGC, Kolkata over 72 holes.
Whereas the men have two spots up for grabs in the 4 member team since Anirban Lahiri and Shubhankar Sharma have been selected automatically, the girls are playing for 2 spots in the 3 member team since only Aditi Ashok has been exempted from qualifying.
Of the 53 players invited, 38 are finally starting the event. Notably Gaganjeet Bhullar is absent, the next highest Indian in the Official World Golf Rankings.
Arguably the teams could have been selected based on World Rankings as in golf, unlike other sports, performance over an extended period of time is a better predictor of medal prospects than performance in a one week qualifier.
Rarely do pros and amateurs compete on the same stage and the Asian Games is one which allows both to do so – hence the qualifier also sees a healthy mix of India’s top amateurs and professional players in perhaps one of the more exciting tournaments of the year. The Asian Games golf tournament will be played in Guangzhou, China, Sept 28 – Oct 1, 2023.
The starting field in the qualifiers at RCGC for both men and women is listed here:
Day 1 scores from the Asian Games Trials in Kolkata
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