Asian Hopefuls Eye Ticket To Carnoustie

The year’s first major tournament, the US Masters, may be just around the corner. But for a group of 73 Asian Tour golfers, July’s Open Championship at Carnoustie is uppermost in their minds this week.

The players will battle it out at Singapore’s Sentosa Golf Club in The Open International Final Qualifying tournament for Asia, with only four places available.

Heading the field are India’s 2005 Asian Tour rookie of the Year Shiv Kapur, looking for his second straight Open appearance, Singapore’s Mardan Mamat, a former winner on the European Tour, and veteran Filipino Frankie Minoza.

Kapur, who failed to make the cut last year at Royal Liverpool, is ready to focus on golf once again after watching the Indian cricket team getting knocked out of the ongoing World Cup in the Caribbean.

Kapur, who earned his 2007 European Tour card by finishing 116th last year in the Order of Merit, said on asiantour.com:

“I did not play much golf the past one week as I was just relaxing and watching a lot of cricket. It is always great playing in your first major, especially with the British Open, with all the history that’s attached to it.”

The Asian qualifiers will be played over two rounds on Sentosa’s Tanjong Course. The 2007 British Open takes place from July 19-22 in Carnoustie with Tiger Woods the defending champion.

The Asian Tour took a short break after last weekend’s Bintan tournament and resumes with the Volvo China Open starting on April 12.


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