Navi Mumbai, Dec 14 : The Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) and CIDCO on Sunday jointly announced the staging of the inaugural CIDCO Open. PGTIâ??s first-ever event in the city carries a prize purse of INR 1 crore and is scheduled to be held here at the magnificent Kharghar Valley Golf Course from December 16 to 19.

The tournament will feature 126 professionals. It will be played in stroke-play format over four rounds of 18 holes each. After two rounds, the top 50 players and ties will make the cut.

The star-studded field at the tournament will include leading Indian professionals such as Yuvraj Sandhu (2025 PGTI Order of Merit Champion), Veer Ahlawat, Manu Gandas, Angad Cheema, and Om Prakash Chouhan, among others.

The prominent foreign players in the tournament include Sri Lankans N Thangaraja and K Prabagaran, Bangladeshis Md Siddikur Rahman and Badal Hossain, Nepalâ??s Subash Tamang, the Czech Republicâ??s Stepan Danek, Italians Michele Ortolani and Federico Zucchetti, American Koichiro Sato, as well as Ugandaâ??s Joshua Seale.

The local professionals in the field are Manoj Kumar, Mayur Thakur and Pankaj Thakur from Navi Mumbai, and Anil Bajrang Mane from Mumbai.

Kapil Dev, President, PGTI, said, â??We are delighted to bring the first-ever PGTI event to the Kharghar Valley Golf Course in Navi Mumbai in partnership with the Government of Maharashtra. This venue represents the exciting growth of golf infrastructure in India, and hosting a tournament here is an important step in taking the sport to new regions and communities. Importantly, we are pleased to bring a PGTI event to the financial capital of India as golf is a sport played at most financial hubs around the world. We look forward to showcasing the talent of Indiaâ??s finest professionals on this beautiful and challenging course, and we hope it inspires more young golfers in Navi Mumbai and beyond. We thank the Honourable Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis, CIDCO and Larsen & Toubro for their support to this event.â??

/IANS